


Beast Guardians

by AnthroLover



Category: Bolt (2008), Disney - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Anthropomorphic, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Anthropomorphic, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Fantasy, Gen, Heroes & Heroines, Multiple Crossovers, No humans, Science Fiction, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2018-12-25 05:13:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12028878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnthroLover/pseuds/AnthroLover
Summary: The world is a dangerous place, that is far from being perfect. Evil lurks into the world, and in every corner you seem to find some evil stalking into the dark, beneath the surface.The world seems like it is slowly moving in direction to the path of destruction, but as it happens, new lights start to shine in the world in the form of special individuals that take on the mantle of heroism.Now, as more new special individuals, both good and evil, raise from the obscurity into the light, the world will slowly start to change forever...





	1. Prolog: A New Family

DestinyCity was one very beautiful place. The first time the explorers put their feet in that land, they saw a very beautiful place, some place that seemed to welcome them in all of it's glory. It was almost like Destiny had kept that place only for them to find.

It was almost two hundred years ago, now, there was a huge city in the place that once was the lusty green valley. Several buildings into the center, with many smaller edifications all around, from offices to houses, with some sectors richer and other more poor. DestinyCity was a very interesting place.

All kind of anthropomorphic beings lived in this city, from mices and squirrels to great elephants and bulls, and the great predators like jaguars and crocodiles. All of them walked into the street, taking care of their daily lives, work and recreation, what was able to find all of it in this great city.

But we are going to see it more later. Now, our attention must focus in a very specific place in here.

An old building, more like a house, was an orphanage. St. Hound Orphanage, for homeless children. A place founded almost fifty years ago by a very kind German Sherped, who wanted to give every single kid a home to stay and a family.

The place was big, and even now, more than 10 years after his death, the place was still working at full force. There was more than 20 rooms for all the kids, and a big inyard for them to play, as well as some classrooms to keep them educated.

In the inyard, in the time to play, all children were out, of many species and sizes they played together. Laughing and cheering fun. All save one.

In the corner of the yard, was a small dog child, creamy white fur with a wide snort and a slender muzzle, a long busy tail and big ears and big eyes, which were hazelnut colored. The dog boy was now sitting into a tree stump, looking at the ground with a sad expression, away from the kids.

Not that the kids were bad to him, he just wanted to be alone. That day was just not a good day.

The dog boy was there, just sitting in the stump, when a pair of feet came into view. Surprised, the child looked up, and saw a person he had never seen before. It was a cat, a black cat girl, around his age, with black fur all over her body, with white in her hands and paws and in her muzzle, as well as the tip of her tail. She was wearing a pink colored dress and should be around his age. She looked at him with her green eyes.

For a long moment they just stared at each other, until the cat girl said "Hi."

The dog boy looked away, but she shifted her position so she was still facing him. "I'm Penny, who are you?" she asked, her innocent eyes looking at him with true interest.

The dog boy eyed her, and said "My name is Bernie."

Penny looked at him and said "Bernie... that's a nice name." she concluded with a smile. Bernie looked at her for a few moments, and said "I never seen you before, are you new here?"

"I'm here with my parents." She said to him "They are helping the orphanage and brought me here."

Bernie looked down "Okay." He said without much of a good mood. He didn't seemed angry, just sad.

Penny noticed it, and said "What is the problem?"

"Nothing." Bernie said bluntly "There is nothing wrong."

"Then why are you so sad?"

"I'm okay."

Penny looked at him, and then she said "I don't think you are." She sat in front of him, and looked in his eyes "What is the problem?"

Bernie could only look at her. This should be the first time in a while that someone really cared this much about him. He looked to the ground again, one single tear ran down his face "My parents died."

Penny gasped when she heard that. "Oh my god!" she said, getting up and hugging him "I'm so sorry!"

This was Bernie's turn to get surprised. Did this strange cat girl was really being so nice to him they have just meet? She broke the hug and looked him in the eyes "I'm truly sorry. I think everybody deserves to have parents. What happened?"

Bernie's ears flowered in his head as he looked to the ground again "It was a car accident." He said "They were going to pick me up in school, when the car crashed." He looked up again "It makes two years now."

Penny looked down too "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay..." Bernie said, but then she said "No, it is not!" it startled Bernie but she continued "It is horrible to lose someone like this! Everyone deserves to have their parents around!"

Bernie looked at her, as she seemed to care about his suffering with all of her heart, even if they have never meet before in their lives. Another tear escaped his eye "Thank you." He said to her "Thank you for caring."

She was able to smile, and then she said "Wanna play?" her tone was innocent, she was noticing that he was thinking about it and it is getting him sad, so she wanted to cheer him up. Bernie looked at her for a few moments, and then he said "Okay."

Penny smiled, and touched his snout gently and said "Tag, you're in!" and she ran off giggling. Bernie took a few moments, before he got up and ran after her "Hey, not fair!" he said, but he ran after her the same way.

She ran and he went after, chasing her as she giggled and swiftly jumped over every rock in the way, while Bernie had to make the turn around to go after her. Soon, he too was starting to laugh with her.

As they ran, the other children noticed their laughing, and soon, they too joined. Soon they all were in a big game of tag. Bernie got a rhino boy, who got a cougar girl, who got a croc boy, who got Penny again, who got a mouse boy, who was now trying to get everyone around.

* * *

"We are very thankful for your kind donation, Mr. Speckman" said Sister Regina, an elderly sheep to an adult cat who was now in front of her. He should be around 5,5 feet tall, with black fur all over his body and yellow colored eyes. He was wearing social white shirt and jeans pants.

By his side, was another cat, this one with yellow fur stripped of brown, she was only one or two inches shorter than him, and her eyes were green. She wore a plain green shirt with a long yellow skirt. She was Roseline Speckman, and she was the black cat's wife.

"You're quite welcome, sister." Said the black cat. Dr. Speckman was a very respected scientist around the town, working for a very important industry: Davidson's Enterprise. They were very respected and made a lot of great creations, besides supplying technologies to half of the country. Their values were around the greatest.

And that day, Jefferson Speckman, the most respected scientist of the D.E., made one of his donations to the orphanage. These donations were made at least two times a year, always for beneficent places, like hospitals and orphanages. It was a particular way of Dr. Speckman help the world on his own. This was good, and made him feel good in the inside, to know he was making the difference and helping others out.

"You are or greatest contributor." Said Sister Regina "We own you very much!"

Speckman scratched the back of his head, it was quite embarrassing when people kept complimenting him. He just wanted to help. "It was nothing, I just make my best."

Once again, sister Regina thanked him in the name of all the orphanage. And then, Roseline noticed something: "Wait, where is Penny?"

Speckman and Regina noticed that penny, the cat girl that was daughter of the couple, was no longer there. She was by their side when they started talking, but must have walked away when they took to long talking. Penny didn't liked those long adult things.

"Penny?" called Speckman, and Regina said "She must have went to play with the kids. They are in the courtyard."

She guided then to the place, and indeed, they found penny in there. She was playing with a great group of children in a game of tag. And right now, she and a cream colored dog were running form a rhinoceros boy.

They looked at it, and smiled as they saw their little girl having fun with other children. Yeah, penny always had her way with others, and she had a particular way of quickly making friends with anyone she meets, due to her personality and her good behavior.

They watched as she and a dog boy ran form the rhino, laughing togheter, they seemed to have known each other quite for quite some time, instead of having meet a few minutes ago. Penny was really very quick to make friends, and her parents knew it very well.

The rhino boy now went after a few other kids, while Penny and the dog boy laughed togheter, they were having quite some fun. Then there was the voice of an adult behind them "Having fun, darling?"

They turned around, to meet a tall black cat. Penny smiled as she said "Daddy!" she hugged him, and the black cat returned the hug to her.

"Daddy, this is Bernie, he is my new friend! He is so much cool!" she said, gesturing to the dog boy, who smiled shyly and waved his hand "Hi, mister."

"Nice to meet you" Jeff said to the young dog, giving a smile. He then turned back to his daughter "Penny, is time for we to go home."

"Okay, daddy." Said Penny, and she turned to Bernie "Bye, Bernie."

The dog's ears flattened in his head, and his look saddened "Bye..." he said, and he turned around, walking slowly. The adults and Penny looked at him as he walked, and Rose said "He seems so sad. What is wrong?"

Sister Regina was the one who answered "Bernie is rather new in here." The eyes turned to her "And he becomes quite sad in this time of the year."

"Why?" asked Penny, and Sister Regina said "Well, today is the second birthday of the day his parents... Passed."

The adults understood it, and sister Regina continued "They were gcoming back form work to get him from school, I guess. There was a problem with the car, and it crashed, they both died nearly instantly. Bernie was waiting for them in school when two officers went there to pick him up, and they told him what happened. Bernie was only six."

"Oh, poor boy." Said Rose, and Speckman said "He has some other relative? An uncle, a cousin?"

"Not that I have heard in the last two years." Said Sister Regina. Penny then said "This is so sad!" The adults looked at her "I wish he could be part of our family..."

There was a moment of silence in which Speckman thought, and he said "Maybe he can."

* * *

Bernie was back at his stock, sitting and looking down. It had been fun having the cat girl around, but now she was gone. Maybe it was like that. Maybe everyone had to go.

Like her.

Like his parents.

Then he felt a touch in his shoulder, he looked up to see the face of Sister Regina, and she was smiling.

"Bernie, darling." She said sweetly "I have a surprise for you. Come with me."

The young dog was a bit confused, but he followed her. They went inside, and passed by a few hallways, and finally they arrived in an office. In there, was Penny, along with her dad and mom, they all looked at Bernie smiling.

Bernie looked at them for a few moments, wondering what was the deal "W-what is going on? I did something wrong?"

"Not at all." Said Mr. Speckman "Actually, we have talked for a bit after meeting you, and we came to a decision. We want to make a proposition to you."

Bernie looked at him confused, and the black cat said "Bernie, what would you think of being part of our family?"

The dog surely got taken back by this. "W-what?"

"We talked about this." Said Rose "And we decided that, if you want, we may adopt you."

Bernie could barely believe what he was hearing. Did they really wanted him? It was for real? But, they were all cats.

"B-but... I'm a dog... and you are cats..."

"You have a problem with it?" asked Speckman, and Bernie quickly said "N-no! Is just... p-people say cats and dogs don't fit together... people aren't going to look strange at us?"

Speckman smiled again "You didn't seemed to mind when you were playing with Penny." And the small black cat smiled at him "And I'm sure we don't mind having a dog as a family member."

"B-but..." Bernie said "...won't they look strange at us?"

Speckman looked at him for a moments, and raised form his chair. He walked to Bernie, and knelt in front of him.

"Bernie, let me tell you one thing my father told me when I was your age." He said "People have their own opinions, they might see different things as strange, and they might think you are strange just because you are different."

Bernie looked to the ground, and he felt the cats hand in his shoulder, and he looked up to meet his kind smile as he kept talking "But, you must not take very seriously their opinion, or try to change who you are just because of them. As long you are a good person and happy with yourself, their opinion is not really that important. The important is the opinion of yourself, and of the people who love and care about you."

Bernie looked at him in the eyes, and the cat asked "So, Bernie, do you want to be part of our family?"

Bernie looked at him, and at Rose and Penny. The adult cat woman was smiling softly, and Penny seemed anxious with his answer. They really wanted him. It did not mattered that he was a dog, they were still wanting him. They wanted him as part of the family, and Bernie, for the first time in a while, felt like he could have a family again. There was just one answer he could give.

"Yes." He said "I want to be part of your family."

"Yay!" exclaimed Penny as she jumped out of the chair and hugged Bernie tight "I have a new brother!"

Speckman chuckled at his daughter, and turned to Sister Regina "Well, guess now we just have to put on all the legal stuff."

"Yeah, is a formality." Said Regina to the black cat, who once more proved to be one of the kindest men she had ever met in her life.

And so, Dr. Speckman and Rose put down some papers, the basics for an adoption process, and Penny was talking very much with Bernie, telling about the things that they could do as brothers, and how they house was. After signed the papers, the rest would be solved in a few weeks.

"So, Bernie, ready to know your new home?" asked Rose, and the dog says "Yes, please."

And so, after Bernie had packed his most important stuff, they entered the car of the family, it was a sportive car of silver color, good for travels with family. As soon as all of them were inside, the vehicle was started and Speckman started driving into the street, in direction of their house.

Bernie looked at the window as the world passed by them. He looked as the orphanage stayed behind, Sister Regina waving goodbye at him with a smile, Bernie waved back.

The city passed by them, as they got away from the orphanage, and got more inside the city. They passed by the districts, until arriving into one of the richest parts of the city. They stopped in front of a big house, and finally they came out of the car.

Bernie could stare in awe of the house of the Speckman family, it was big, around two stores, and very fancy decorated. Bernie was invited inside, and he could see a big and finally decorated living room, with a big sofa, a big tv that seemed wider than Bernie's height. Bernie could do nothing more than stare at it in awe.

"Like what you see?' asked Jefferson, snapping Bernie out of his trance, and the dog said "Your house is beautiful."

"Is OUR house now, Bernie." Said Speckman, offering him a smile. "Want to see the bedroom?" and Bernie could only nod.

"We have two guests bedrooms, but I guess we can change one of them in a bedroom only for you." Said Speckman as he guided Bernie upstairs "Tonight you can sleep into Penny's bedroom. You will have to sleep in a sleeping bag, since it only has one bed, hope you don't mind."

"Not at all, Mr. Speckman." Said Bernie, and Jefferson looked at him with a smile.

They quickly arrived in Penny's bedroom; the walls were painted pink with posters of many singers in it, and many dolls into several places, as well as a big closet. The whole bedroom was wide, and the bed seemed to be very comfortable, and the mattress had stamps of butterflies.

After knowing the house whole, soon it was dinnertime, and they all ate together, they had a chicken for dinner, and it was one of the best things Bernie had eat. After that, he and Penny went to the living room and where allowed to watch cartoons in the tv, and after that, they played a few games.

Before they noticed, it was time for sleep, and soon, Penny was in her bed, while Bernie laid into the sleeping bag, and Rose and Jeff looked at them "Goodnight, Penny."

"Goodnight mon, goodnight dad."

"Goodnight, Bernie."

"Goodnight."

And before switching off the lights, they said "Bernie..."

"Huh?"

"Welcome home." Jeff said, as they switched off the lights, and Bernie was left alone with Penny, at the light of the night lamp. "Good night, Penny" said Bernie, and Penny smiled to him "Good night, Bernie. I'm really glad you're my brother now." And she went to sleep.

Bernie got comfortable in his sleeping bag, and wondered about all this day, that more seemed like a dream to him. He was part of a new family now, and they seemed to care about him. After a long time, having a family felt great. He closed his eyes, and smiled into his sleep, as his life seemed to be changing for the better

 

 


	2. Episode 001: Comes the Thunder - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Years passed, and Bernie has grown from a small pup into a teenager, and now he lives happily with his adoptive family, a perfect normal life.  
> Today the group is going for a special field trip into Bernie and Penny's father...

_A young puppy was sitting in the outside, it was getting, but he was still there, waiting. He was sitting over his own bag, in his hands there was a comic with the drawing of a canine character in a colored suit and a dramatic pose, the title readying " **The Adventures of Mighty Wolf** "._

_This young puppy love superheroes, he just did. Now, he was using the time to read a newest number he just acquired as he waited. They should be there soon._

_But it was getting late, and they were not of getting late to pick him up. It should be something, they should probably solve it soon, and then they would come to pick him up, and they would be home soon._

_A car parked nearby, the small cream-colored puppy with wide nose looked up, and was sad when he saw it wasn't his parents car. It was a police car, and two officers with blue uniforms came out._

_The pup looked at the cops as the teacher walked forward, and they started talking. After a few minutes, they turned to him, and they all walked in his direction. They all had serious expressions._

_The puppy got worried. Why they were going to him? He had done something wrong? Was it because he pushed another student in the ground?_

_But, as they approached, Bernie saw that they did not looked angry, instead, they looked at him with concern._

_The puppy looked at them as a cop, an eagle one, with brown colored feathers, yellow eyes and yellow beak, knelt in front of him and asked "You are Bernie Solomon?" he looked at him and talked to him in the kindest way he could._

_The pup, Bernie, did not answered, and just stared at the strange eagle, and soon his teacher, a middle aged doe, said to him "Is okay, Bernie. He wants to talk about your parents..."_

_"Miss Gustav." Said the eagle, looking at her, but it was too late. Bernie's eyes widened when he heard about his parents. He knew that the police only came when there was a big problem. Was there a problem with his parents?_

_"What happened to mommy and daddy?" he asked, and the eagle turned back at him, and sighed "There was an accident, with the car." He said slowly "There is someone we can left you with? An uncle, your grandparents, maybe?"_

_An accident with his parents?!?_

_"Are they okay?" Bernie asked, the eagle looked to the ground for a few moments, and then looked up again and continued "There is a friend of your parents? Someone who could let you stay at home for a while?"_

_"Are they hurt?" Bernie insisted, wanting to know what happened, but the eagle kept changing the subject "There is anyone who can watch over you for a whi-"_

_"WHERE ARE MY PARENTS!" Bernie shouted, making everyone jump. His fsace was hardened as he looked into the eagle's eyes. The eagle looked up to his partner, who shook his head "no", pleading silently._

_The eagle sighed, and turned his head back to Bernie, and spoke softly. "Your parents were driving to here, when something happened. Maybe it was a problem in the car, or the road was too slippery."_

_"Mondancer!" his parner whispered urgently, but Bernie ignored him._

_"Are they hurt?" Bernie asked, the eagle looked at him in a way that Bernie did not understood. An emotion that he was too young to understand, but later, he would recognize as pity and sadness._

_"Your parents... Didn't survived the crash." The eagle said finally "They died before the paramedics arrived."_

_Bernie's brain seemed to have tilted after he heard that._

_Your parents died..._

_Your parents died..._

_This same words kept repeating in his mind, like branded in his brain by hot iron._

_No. It could not be. It just could not be. He didn't believed, he refused to believe. They were lying. At any moment, his parents would arrive in the car. His father would pick him up and his mother was going to kiss him in the forehead like she always did, and they were going back home to have lunch._

_He was barely hearing as the eagle kept talking to him. He was feeling dizzy, his belly was strange, he felt his eyes watering, as a great pain throbbed in his little heart._

_Tears reeled down his eyes as he fell to his knees, his comic book forgotten in the ground. He breathed "Mommy! Daddy!"_

* * *

"Mommy! Daddy!" Bernie breathed as he opened his eyes. He got up on his bed, looked at his own room. Bleu colored with several posters in it. Bernie breathed heavily as he laid his head in his hands.

"Dammit. That dream again." Bernie mumbled as he breathed. He could feel his face watery, both from sweat as from tears.

He had this dream occasionally, since that day. The day that he was going to remember forever as the worse day of his life. The day his parents had died. The cops said he had fainted when he heard that, and he cried for two whole months afterwards.

For the following months he refused to talk to anyone, for the first days be refused even to eat. He had no one else, no parents, no relatives, and he knew no one who was actually close to his parents or that wanted him.

He ended up in the orphanage soon after that. He was the for the next 14 months after that. He had difficulty to get along with any family, and was never adopted. He actually thought he was going to stay there for his whole life...

_TRIIIIIIIIIM_

Bernie's thoughts were interrupted as he looked to the ringing alarm clock. Six-a-an. A chronometric wakening. Now that was something that didn't happened every day. Bernie sighed, and switched it off.

He sighed, and soon he get out of his bed.

Bernie had grown since he was a cub. Now he stood 5,4 feet tall, with a lightly toned building and strong arms. He was still having the same layer of cream colored fur and the hazelnut colored eyes. He had strong legs and busy tail behind himself, and a wide snout. He was the same dog, but now, he was bordering adulthood.

It made eleven years since his parents deaths, and nine years since he got himself a new family.

Bernie had been adopted by the Speckman. A family of cats that received the dog as one of them. Bernie had become part of their family. Bernie now had become one of them, he was part of the family now. He had his own room, had his house, went to school, and it was legal. He was officially the son of Jefferson and Roseline Speckman.

Yeah, some people would find strange a dog being part of a cat family, but Bernie was beyond it. He liked very much being part of that family, and learned to care little for the ones that said it was strange or that should not be.

Bernie was part of this family, and he liked it.

Bernie yawed at he walked on his room, he whore only a pair of blue boxers and a white shirt. He needed to take a bath and get ready. Opening the door, he started walking into the hallway.

He walked in direction of the door in the end of the hallway, and was about to enter it, when a black bur went forward and the door almost hit his nose when it closed. Bernie's eyes widened "What the..."

"Penny!" Bernie said, as he knocked the door, and as answer, came the voice inside "Just a few minutes, Bern! Geez!"

Bernie groaned "Man, it happens every day." He said as he waited in the outside. Since he joined the Speckman family, he had now a sister, Penny. A young black cat he had meet there in the orphanage, and that somehow managed to convince her parents to take him there.

In a way, you could say it was thanks to her that Bernie now had a new family. Bernie was her brother for around nine years by now. And he liked it very much. It was just a few details that made it hard, like all the time she spent controlling the bathroom.

Bernie already knew that slamming the door would be of no use, so he could just recline against the wall and wait for her to finish.

_Five minutes_

Yeah, Bernie knew she was going to take a while, it would not be so hard if it wasn't for Bernie usually waking up with a full bladder.

_Ten minutes_

Bernie now was pacing back and forth in front of the door. Yeah, he was probably never going to get used to it, at least, not while he had a full bladder in the morning.

_Fifteen minutes_

Bernie groaned as he crossed his legs while standing. Next time he was going to run to arrive in the bathroom before Penny. Oh boy.

_Twenty minutes_

Berni knocked the door urgently. "Penny!"

"Just a few more minutes!"

_Twenty-five minutes_

"Penny!" Bernie breathed as he knocked the door. His bladder felt like it was about to explode. He crossed his legs and bit down his lip. It was just a matter of seconds until a tragedy would happen.

Then, finally, Penny opened the door.

Bernie barely waited for her to come out when he forced his way inside.

"Bern! Hey!" he barely heard as he barked "My bladder will explode!" and he closed the door, leaving Penny outside, slightly stunned. Bernie didn't knew why she was like that. It happened at least three times a week.

Bernie almost didn't made it in time, and it was a great relieve to him. After five minutes, Bernie finally got rid of his clothes and went inside the shower. He switched it on, and let the water fall down over him.

He shivered as the cold water poured into him. It was another disadvantage of having to wait for Penny to finish her shower, she always used up all the hot water, and he was only left for the cold one.

Well, at least there was still water.

He shared that bathroom with Penny, since their parents had their own bathroom in their room, Penny and Bernie had to "come to an agreement", about the other bathroom. Both Bernie and Penny objected to it, but they had to really come to terms with it. Bernie still didn't knew how Penny convinced him that she had priority because she was "a lady".

Bernie finished after five minutes, he didn't got it why Penny took so long. Dad said it was a "girl thing", thing he only understood when he was a bit older, and yet, it was still puzzling him why it took so long.

Bernie dried his fur with the white towel that was his. And when he was dry enough, he tied it around his ankle, and went in front of the mirror. He looked at the cream-colored dog back at him, as he picked up his toothbrush, put toothpaste in it and guided it to his mouth, as the dog in the mirror did the same.

Bernie brushed his teeth, and spat the content into the sink. He gurgled some water, and psat it too. He had ended in less than eight minutes.

He came out by the door, and was ready to go back to his room to get dressed. The hallway was once again desert, Penny was surely back in her room getting dressed. Bernie sighed as he waljked back to his room rather quickly.

Once there, he closed the door and put the towel away and searched in his closet for his clothes for school. After a few more minutes, he decided for a green colored polo shirt and a blue colored jeans pants with long legs.

First of all,Bernie slipped in a pair of blue boxers, slidding it up his legs, and fitting his tail into the small hole. It was the hardest, fitting his tail in the hole that was just big enough to allow his tail to hang free without exposing his backside to the world.

After, he slid his shirt over his head, passing his head by the hole and his arms, and helped it down the rest of his body. Finally, he passed the jeans pants over his legs, doing the same procedure he did with the boxers. In no time, Bernie was dressed and ready to school.

He went outside of his room, and went to the other end of the hallway, and went down the stairs, arriving in the living room. The rest of the family was already there, eating breakfast and waiting for him.

Penny, that same young girl he knew nine years ago, had grown into a fine cat girl. She was still having the same black fur with white muzzle, hands and feet and the tip of her tail. But6 now, she was taller, just two inches shorter than Bernie, and she was now a more delicate figure, having a slender body, but with some muscle in certain areas.

She had grew up from that bubbly girl, and now, she was a more confident girl. She was the kind of girl who could fend for herself, and usually would solve her problems with her claws. Yet, she was still being nice with who needed. She was a confident girl who knew exactly what she wanted, and was ready to go for it. She had personality, just to say the least.

She wore her favorite set of clothing, a long jeans pants and a white colored shirt. She wore a golden necklace in her neck, and was using green earrings in her left ear.

Rose, their mother, was also there, she was a bit older, but she was still being the same plump cat with yellow fur and bow strips, and had the same green eyes of years before, though now she had a few wrinkles around them, she had that same kind and caring look from nine years ago. She wore a blue colored dress.

 And their father, Jefferson Speckman, the same black cat with yellow eyes, with average build and his 5,5 feet tall. He was still having that same intelligent look on his face. He was sitting in the edge of the dinner table, sipping on his coffee as he read his newspaper. He was wearing long pants and a plain black shirt, and was using half-moon glasses in his face, normally he only needed when he was reading, driving or doing some precise work.

Bernie walked and sat on the table, seeming a bit out of place as a dog in the middle of cats. But Bernie didn't felt like that in the slightest, it was  _his_  family, and he was oin the place he felt like he belonged.

"Had a good night, Bernie?" asked Jeff, and Bernie said "Yeah, just the usual, dad."

Bernie got used to call Jeff "dad", after a few months, it came to him naturally.

"Did all you needed for school?"

"Yeah."

"Made you schoolbag?"

"Yup."

"Did your works last night?"

"Yes."

Jeff nodded, and turned to his daughter, but before he talked, she said "I did my homework and made my bag yesterday, you know I do this, dad."

He chuckled "Yeah, those are my kids."

"Dad!" Bernie and Penny said at the same time, both feeling uncomfortable for being called "kids" when they were almost adults now. Both Penny and Bernie already had their driving cards, though none of them had a car yet. Their parents wanted them to buy the cars with their own money. "Doing something by yourself build character" or something like that, they didn't had everything they wanted just because the family had money.

The breakfast went normally, and they ate for minutes, before getting ready. Bernie and Penny where ready to go for the bus, and their mother was getting ready to do her own job as accounter. And their father, was ready to do his own job.

"Penny, Bernie."

The dog and cat turn to their father, who smiles at them "See you in job."

They both smiled back, and waved goodbye as they went outside. They walked to the point, and waited the bus. Five minutes later, the bus arrived, the yellow big vehicle brought about by an chubby crocodile.

Getting inside, they passed by many other anthropomorphic animals, and both sat into a good place, Bernie got near the window, their bags resting in their laps as they put themselves to talk.

"Can you believe dad actually did it?" asked Penny "I mean, it is so awesome!"

"I'll say." Said Bernie "Everybody in our class seemed to like it also." Bernie said, remembering when the teacher gave the news, everybody cheered and it was hard to make them focus back in class.

"Yeah! I just can't believe we are going-" Penny said, but someone chimed in

"My neither!"

This made both dog and cat jump as they looked over their shoulders. Behind them, right in the behind chair, there was sitting a hamster. He was light-brown colored with hazelnut eyes, long whiskers and big front teeth. He wore a yellow colored polo shirt with white pants, and was rather chubby.

This one was Ricky Gorson, a 17 years-old hamster guy who was a great friend of Penny and Bernie, and seemed to somehow admire Bernie. This was because Bernie stand up for him when he was bullied in his first day of school. Sometimes Rick acted like an 10-years-old fan boy, and was rather immature or a little childish, jumping for things without thinking very much. It was hard to tell how many times it put him in danger, but was a little easier to say how many times he dragged Bernie, Penny or both with him.

"Rick!" said Penny "For the love of- Don't scare us like that."

"I'm sorry, but I'm just so trilled! I casn't believe we are actually going  _there!_  Your father is so awesome!"

Bernie could only chuckle at his friend as Penny seemed a bit annoyed. He had barely changed since they first meet. Rick was still being that same easygoing boy with a strong imagination and a very carefree nature. He was a dreamer, and this would probably won't change.

Rick passed the rest of the trip talking about just how good it was going to be and what he hoped he could see when they were there. Bernie and Penny had tome to do occasional commentaries, but Rick talked for most of the time, and he continued when they went down the bus, and until they separated for they classes. Penny breathed as she was far from Rick's talkative mouth.

The first class was math, and then they proceeded to history, and then theater. The math was the hardest for Bernie, but he was good at the theater. In the first day he was said to be a rather good actor. They said he had talent, and he showed it one more time in the class in the interpretation exercise.

Following to it, there was the biology class, a separate one from Penny's. It was a rather interesting field for Bernie, it made him very interested the way the living organs functioned, and how they could to things like change color and regenerate limbs. It made him remember of times that he let his mind wander free...

Finally, the bell for the lunch rang. Bernie, along with many other students, left it quickly, and went to the dining hall, and in there, he searched for a lot of tables, until finding the one in which there were Penny and Rick.

"Bernie! In here!" Rick called out, waving his arm frantically to the dog, and calling some attention form the other students. Bernie walked and sit by their table, and Penny whispered to Rick "Do you have to be so loud!?"

Bernie chuckled, and searched in his bag, taking off his own lunch and another thing that immediately caught Rick's attention.

The hamster gasped and his eyes bulged open as he stared at the thing Bernie had in hands like it was an inestimable treasure "Bernie..." he breathed "This is... is..."

"The fifty-third edition of Mighty Wolf." Bernie said, holding off a comicbook with the image of a canine in blue spandex with the capital letters "MW" in the chest, and a mask over his face. He was holding a minivan over his head with both hands while a robot shoot missiles at him, it could be heard "Mighty Wolf and the Robotic Madness"

Rick squealed at this, making a few students in near tables stare at him, as he snatched the comic from Bernie's hands, and stared at it as a treasure. "I can't believe you have this! This is one of the rarest editions! They say that they only made fifty of those!"

"Do you have to be so loud?" whispered Penny "They are staring!"

"Do you realize the value of this!?" asked Rick almost rubbing the comic book in her face, making Penny push it away "I see it, I'm not blind!"

"This is one of the rarest things ever made of the story of the Mighty Wolf! This is a relic of great value! Few things could be as rare and as good! This is the edition where we got to know the story of his arch-enemy, Mister Doom, and how he came to be what he is now, as well as the time he tries to take over with an army of robots armed with the only weakness of Mighty Wolf! This is gold! Pure gold!"

Penny rolled her eyes while Bernie chuckled. This one thing allowed him and Bernie to become friends. Bernie had been a great fan of comic books and heroes, and he did became quite close to Rick due to this. Bernie had grown, but he still liked those stories about heroes and adventures, though he knew it was impossible.

Rick, on the other hand, was still being a fan, and why not say, a fanatic, of those stories. He sometimes gave to understand that it was possible for these things to happen, if you are hit by a meteor could really give you amazing powers, or that it was possible to create robotic armies to try to take over the world. Rick was a dreamer, and he was probably never going to stop being one.

Rick was so absorbed into looking that he magazine, that they didn't even noticed someone approaching them, until the comic book was snatched of his hands by a bulky ape.

"Hey!" cried out Rick, and the ape said "Hey, look at that! What is this?"

"Is a comicbook." Said Penny "Honestly, you are not even smart enough to this? How do you pass grades?"

The ape shoot her an angry glare, and was about to go for her when Bernie stepped on his way "Just try."

The ape looked down at Bernie, who stood at least one feet shorter than him, and was less bulky. In fact, Bernie seemed to be less a threat to the ape than the ape was to him, and the big ape noticed it, and laughed.

"Go laughing, villain!" said Rick, in a rather dramatic tone, making Penny stare at him "My friend here Bernie will kick you just like Mighty Wolf kicked Tratum in the number 73rd. You will wish you have never been born!"

The ape stared at him, and at the comic book in his hands "So, you guys like heroes, huh?" he says, and walks closer to Bernie, and punches him in the gut. This caught Bernie off guard and knocked the air out of his lungs. Bernie bends over, holding his chest and groaning.

"Bernie!" says Penny as she held him, helping him stay on his feet, as the ape laughed "What? Am not I'm going to feel the wrath over my body? Come on hero! Show me what you have! Show me your strength!"

Bernie coughed up as he looked up at the ape, glaring daggers at him, but he did nothing more.

The ape laughed hard "Those things of heroes are only bull!" he said as he threw the comic book in the ground "Just a thing for babies to pass their time and to have good things to think while they wait for their mommies with their bottles!"

The ape looked at Bernie "This is a thing only babies and idiots believe or care about. You are no hero, dog! You are just another idiot that rather have this than face the real world!" and he turned around and walked off laughing hard, leaving everyone staring at him, and the three friends, in there.

"I can't believe it!" said Rick

"Me neither, that guy simply punched Bernie out of no-"

"He just threw the comic book in the ground!"

"What?"

"I can't believe, what if the pages got screwed? Oh man, this is such a lack of respect..."

WHACK

Rick barely reacted when Penny slapped the back of his head "Bernie just got punched and you are worried with the comic book!? You need seriously to rethink your priorities!" she said, as she helped Bernie to sit down as he recovered his breath.

The dog took a few seconds to recover, and Penny just complained "Do you believe that guy!? Hitting someone just because he can! I can't believe it, that guy should be expelled by that! What a moron!"

"It's okay." Said Bernie, and Penny said "No, it is not! That jerk cannot do something like that! We should go to the principal and tell him what just happened!"

"Penny, is okay, I'm fine." Bernie assured her "I'm just glad he didn't did anything with you and Rick." Bernie said offering a smile.

"Ha ha! This is our Bernie!" said Rick "Always thinks of the others and stand bravely at the danger! Mighty Wolf would be proud of you!"

Penny rolled her eyes, but she smiled. Bernie was like that, he was always standing for the others that couldn't stand for themselves. That was how they meet Rick, and that was what he did for her since they became a family. Bernie was always ready to stand for others, even if it meant he would put himself into trouble. This was something that was both a failure and a quality at him, something she had come both to admire and to be annoyed about her adoptive brother.

So, after Bernie convinced her to forget the matter, they resumed their lunch, the normality arriving back to the dining hall. Rick was eating out many small French fires, shoving them in his mouth. Penny had brought some fried salmon from home, and Bernie had a piece of steak. Though he lived with cats, fish was one thing he never had liked, he disliked the taste, and hated the fishbones.

After the lunch, the normal would be everyone returning to their classrooms, and resuming the classes of the day.

But that was not a normal day. And instead, everybody was reuniting in front of the main gate. Everybody was talking and gossiping. This was a rare day of a fieldtrip. And this trip, in particular, was to a very special place.

"Ahem!" said a voice, and everyone turned to the center in front of the gates, where stood a fairly tall and muscled horse, whose was principal Winchester, and he spoke "Attention, attention, everyone!"

The remaining voices silenced as everyone focused into the tall horse as he spoke.

"As you know, today is a special day, today, we received a special permission for a very special fieldtrip!"

All the students nodded, some cheered, like Rick, besides Penny and Bernie, who had to cover their ears, and the principal continued "Today, we get to visit nowhere else than the main building labs of Davidson's Enterprise!"

This time many of the animals in there cheered.

Going to the main labs of DE was one great chance. They were like, the main supplier of many parts of the country, with technology, wealth and many others. They had like, the most advanced technology of the planet in their labs, and many things that you would expect see into sci-fi movies, and many other advanced things.

That place was awesome, and normally only authorized people where allowed in there, but today, was one of the rare occasions that they let someone from the outside go in. And in this occasion, they had let some classes from the local school, Jackson's High, to go in there for a tour.

"Visiting such an important place is a rare chance." Said the principal "And we must thank very much the team that allowed it, specially Doctor Jefferson Speckman, who was the main head of this idea, and without who, we would not be able to make this fieldtrip."

Bernie and Penny shared a look and a smirk, while Rick squealed "Your father is awesooooooome!"

Bernie and Penny both chuckled at him. Yeah, it was still hard to believe that their father was able to organize something like that. Half of the guys into the school dreamed in getting inside that place, Rick included. Being able to be in there was like being into an expo of the world of the future, with projects of flying cars and many other things.

"Okay." The principal called again, making everyone pay attention to him "As you all known, this requires life insurance and the authorization of your parents. If you have both of this things, then you can go to the bus, and we will go in direction of our fieldtrip! Okay, with that said, let's get going!"

Everybody cheered when those words were said, and everybody started walking o the bus, Bernie with penny and Rick, who wasn't stopping blabbering "I just can't believe! I'm so excited! It will be so great! Maybe they'll let ig go inside their starships!"

"They don't have startships." Said Penny, and Rick retorted "That you know! I heard they do all kind of top-secret things, from starships to genetic experiments! I hear they're trying to make super soldiers!"

"Those are just rumors."

"They have all the secrecy for a reason." Whispered Rick "Maybe we see a mutant creature escaping form the labs."

"You have been reading too much of those comicbooks." Said Penny with a smirk, and Bernie laughed, he looked forward, and his face suddenly got all serious as he shivered. His gaze stayed forward, as he looked in direction of the bus which would take them to the labs.

Penny noticed this "Bernie?"

"Huh?" the dog turned to her as he snapped out of it, and looked at Penny, who looked back at him.

"Bernie, is it okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure." He said "Is just... I have this feeling like something great is going to happen."

"And it will!" said Rick "we will see DE labs! Maybe we can sneak into the place they keep the aliens!"

"Rick!"

"Is not just that..." said Bernie "I feel like... I don't know... This feeling like... There is something huge just about to happen."

"Guess you're just nervous." Said Penny, shrugging "Lets go to the bus and let them take us there. It is really something great but, it is not like something in there will change the way we live the rest of our lives." She said, holding Bernie's arm and helping him in the way.

The dog smiled back to her. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was just a feeling.

But this feeling was right.

Little did they knew that what would happen in there was going to change not only their lives, but maybe the whole future.

Little did Bernie knew, as he entered the bus with his friends, and it started and took the road, that what would transpire in there, would transform his life forever.

  


 


	3. Episode 001: Comes the Thunder - part 2

DestinyCity was a big place, with several different blocks, form industrial to residential, to the richest district to the less rich, Downtown being the most famous of those districts. The city was big, and was the kind of place where you could find all kinds of things.

This same city was home of one of the greatest industries of the world: Davidson's Enterprise. Owned by the Davidson family, and responsible for some of the greatest advents of the world, like new weaponry and several advents in medicine, physics and construction. They were among the richest and more influent organizations in the whole world.

Of course, with all this influence, came the rumors around them. Some said that the D.E possessed a particular army, equipped with the war technology that they decided to keep themselves. There was some who said that they conducted a series of super-secret experiences that came from genetic experiences with other dimension things. Some said that they had their own organization, like a super CIA, acting in the backstage. Some said even that they had a secret lab where they kept aliens in a freezer to study. And there were much more conspiracy theories about them and their researches and influences.

Of course, none of it diminished their position or their collaboration to the world. Most well informed people dismissed those rumors only as a paranoia or some unoccupied people searching for what to do.

D.E. was still being present and influent in the whole DestinyCity. It was present in three different buildings. The first of them, was a commercial building, where there was workings in the juridical area, and where the greatest negotiations were made, and it was where the main president worked.

The second of them was the Davidson's Hospital, a special community hospital created to attend the sick and the ones with problems. It was a big place, dedicated to help everyone who needed.

And finally, there was the D.E Labs. A big building of several yards dedicated exclusively to scientific research. It was a big place, composed of building interconnected by them by bridges among the levels. Inside of it, there was several labs, each one equipped with the most modern technologies to research and experiment. In there, they made a few of their greatest discoveries, and they were still developing new technologies and several advances for all the areas, some still being working in sigil, for what knew, and the labs were highly restricted. This was one of the coolest places in the whole world, and it rarely allowed visitors.

And today was one of these rare occasions.

All the students of Jackson's High looked in awe at the great buildings as their bus passed by them, many climbing over each other to get a good look at the buildings as they passed.

Rick climbed over everyone as they arrived in place.

"It is it!" he squealed "The home of all the great technology in the world! The paradise of the great mad science! I can't believe we are finally here!" he squealed in pure happiness. Penny, who was in the front chair, hid her face with her hand, it was rather embarrassing, if they asked, she was going to say she didn't knew him. Bernie, on the other hand, could just chuckle at his friend's behavior. In fact, he shared a little of this excitation, going to a place like this was a chance to see things he could have dreamed about when he was younger.

"Okay, everyone!" called an elderly owl, it was Martin Lovegood, the history teacher, he made everyone pay attention to him and said "This bus is now Group 4! Everyone must follow me and remain in the group. Avoid getting lost and when we get inside do everything I say! Okay, let's get going!" he said in the moment the bus stopped and the doors opened

"Everybody keep calm and left in order!" he said as everyone rushed to get past the doors, some almost trampling the others in their way. But he was barely listened, everybody was just too excited to be in there and get inside the building as quick as possible.

Rick rushed past everyone and tried to climb his way to the door by the other students "Out of the way! Let me pass! I need to see my dream!"

"Oh, man. He really needs to do this?" asked Penny as she got up, and Bernie only said "Well, I guess that he is very excited. I mean, this is like the place where the impossible can happen. For him is like visiting a giant comic con."

"Yeah, let's just hope he doesn't get us in trouble... again."

Soon all the students came out of each bus, and they were all standing in line, waiting for the chance to enter the building. Many were annoyed as the principal was explaining once again the regulation of security, the fact they had to stay with the group and teacher at all time, that they should always wear the visitant ID, etc.

Penny looked to the side, and her eyes widened as she saw someone in other group.

"Bernie!" she whispered nervous, nudging the dog by her side, Bernie looked at her and followed her gaze, and he saw the same ape from school. He was one foot taller than Bernie, had black fur and blue eyes, was wearing a red jacket with white shirt and long jeans pants. He looked annoyed at so much rules as he waited in a group that was (thankfully) different form Bernie, Penny and Rick's.

"What that guy is doing here?" Penny asked, glaring daggers at the ape. Bernie simply shrugged "Guess he was invited too."

"But he shouldn't!" she said "That guy is a complete jerk! He should have stayed at school instead of coming here!"

Bernie knew that Penny was like that when she didn't liked someone, but he simply said "Well, at least he isn't in our group, I don't think we will have problem with him."

"Hope you are right. We better not cross ways with him." Said Penny, as she and Bernie received their IDs. After that, all the students entered the building.

They were received by a moose in a very elegant lab coat, who greeted them

"Welcome! Be welcome, young minds, to Davindson's Enterprise Labs!" he greeted them, and all the attention now was bring to him. "It is really an honor for us to receive the young minds of future citizens into our labs! I'm doctor Alexander Maximilian, and I'm be one of your main guides in the tour for this place. And I assure you, you will probably like what you will see. Some of you might even decide to have a job in here in the future, but I'm warning you, only the best of the best are selected to be in here!"

Everyone had their full attention to the moose as he talked "So, I guess you didn't came here to see the babbling of an old man! So let's get started, and be ready, what you find in here might change you lives forever!"

And so, the teams were split, and Bernie, Penny and Rick all went in their group, and passed by many parts of the labs, seeing many things. Most of it were only projects and experiments, but they were not less awesome.

There was projects involving magnetic gravitation, as for future transportation as in flying cars. There was some scientists in the labs researching for what was explained to be new vaccines based on virus that would adapt to any diseased. Some new equipment that were described as some new equipment that would help the construction systems.

But they were all projects, and were all said to be developments to a distant future, that maybe their grandchildren would came to enjoy. They also were told about many other projects, and several other plans, like new uniforms for the offices and the firefighters, and many new equipment to rescue.

Most of the explanation was too detailed to be understood, most of the students could not follow, but they understood enough to know just how cool all of this was. Bernie and Penny were excited by all of this, and Rick was almost dancing in the place as he paced back and forth, so excited at each thing. He constantly interrupted with questions like "Where do you keep the aliens?", "Can we see the spaceships?", "Do you have a death ray?" and "Where is the bathroom?"

Of course, most of these questions received laughs, and annoyed the guide as they went by. But there were a few serious questions of others, like about the projects, and future works of them, and other projects. Questions that the guide was happy to answer.

"Okay, so, how do you give someone super powers?" asked Rick again, raising his hand high. Everybody remained silent as they stared at him, who looked back "What?"

Penny lowered her head, and was ready to say that she didn't even knew that guy, while Bernie only smiled, and Rick continued "Is a completely legitimate question! So, how do you do this? You give him a shoot of super medicine? You give the guy a super pill? You let him swim in some of your toxic trash?"

The guide stared at him, and said "Mr. Gorson, we are talking about  _serious_  science in here!"

"I know! That is why I'm asking about how you rally make someone go all super!"

"Mr. Gorson! Stop talking about this non-sense!"

"Go easy on him." Said a voice, and the group turned around to see another scientist coming by a door "He is just very excited about this, I think." This one was around 5,5 feet tall, with black fur all over his face, and a kind look in his yellow colored eyes, he looked to be at his late forties, and was wearing a white lab coat, a pair of long pants, and half-moon glasses over his eyes, he also bore a kind smile.

Penny and Bernie both smiled as they saw the scientist, who smiled back at them, they knew exactly who he was, for they lived in the same house.

The black cat cleared his throat and spoke "Hello, everyone. I'm Jefferson Speckman. I'm one of the many scientisat that work here in Davidson's Enterprise Labs." As he said there, many of the students started whispering between themselves. This was the man who made this trip possible, and, according to rumors, he was one of the most important guys in there.

"OH! I know you! You are Penny and Bernie's dad! The guy who let us in here!" exclaimed Rick happily, making both Penny and Bernie blush as the attention turned to them. Penny surely wanted just to rip out Rick's face, while Bernie didn't liked that much attention turned into him.

Dr. Speckman, on the other hand, just chuckled "Yeah, my daughter and adoptive son are students of your school." He says "And I'm very proud of both of them."

This made Penny and Bernie smile at him at the situation was somewhat eased.

"Cool! You have some super-secret project?" asked Rick, making Speckman look at him

"Excuse me?"

"A secret project! Yah know, a new research! Some kind of great thing, like a battle armor or a super serum for giving super powers!"

Speckman smiled at him, and give a look to his supervisor, who after a few seconds said "It will come to public in one week or less, anyway." And Speckman nodded.

The students all stared at them "You really have a super power serum?" asked Rick, barely containing his excitation.

Speckman chuckled again, and said "I cannot say I working on something like what you said." This made Rick's smile drop, but then the black cat said "But I can show you one new thing me and my team have been working on, if you follow me."

Of course, it didn't needed to be said twice, as the team wasted no time in following the scientist cat into his room. It seemed something came out of a sci-fi movie, with several computers, and some other equipment that most o the students had no idea of what it was. And there was also a big divider, that gave view to an alternate room through a glass that seemed to be isolated of the rest of the group, and in there were a lot of visors and consoles in the wall.

Everyone was amazed at this as they looked around the room, cheking in all the things in there, and rick was the more excited of all "Wooooah! What are those!?"

"Most devices to check out radiation." Explained Speckman, and everyone looked at the cat, who also said "Okay, who in here already heard about the test with the particle accelerator?"

Many animals raised their hands in the air, including Penny and Bernie, and Speckman said "Well, during this test, it was detected traits of a very interesting radiation, different from any other kind of known radiation."

All the eyes were turned to him "Well, in the last few years, we conducted experiments trying to analyze this energy, and reproduce it. And after years of attempt and mistake, we finally were able to isolate and recreate this energy. We called it Omega Radiation."

There was along silence, until Rick finally broke it "This... is... so... AWESOME!" he said as he jumped "And what does this radiation do? It turns furries into supers? It makes insect go giant?"

"Actually, we are not sure yet." Said Speckman to the hamster "As I said, is a new kind of radiation, and until very recently it was unknown, we are still not being sure about it's more basic properties, and that's why we made this room!" he said walking to the glass panel that separated the room from the other.

Speckman stood in there as he started to explain. "In the room at the other side of this panel, we made a special wave producer that was programmed to emit the specific length of the radiation Omega. Once activated, it will emit Omega radiation straight in those equipment of analyses, that will record and allow us to analyze the radiation and discover just its precise properties and effects."

"That is so cool!!!" said Rick, and many people agreed with this "yeah, in the next week, we will officially start the tests in this room. The room of the tests is, naturally, completely isolated, as the omega radiation is still a radiation, and as such, might be very, very harmful to wealth, and we need to avoid contamination and disease of any kind."

"Why exactly you would do this kind of experience?" asked another student, a goat boy, and Speckman answered "When we discovered this energy, we also discovered that it was also present in very little quantities in the space. A new kind of radiation, totally unknown before, if correctly understood, could open new doors for the understanding of the functioning of the universe, and it could help in physics, medicine, about several other topics, in fact, this could lead to several discoveries based on this same experience of simply production to analyses."

"Owwww." Said many students, and Bernie and Penny could only smile to each other in knowledge their fatherly figure was doing something so important. Rick, on the other hand, was much louder "So coll!" he squealed "And those Omega-don't-know-what can give someone super powers?"

Penny rolled her eyes. Geez, could Rick at least try to change the subject?

Speckman chuckled "We are not sure about this, what we know is that this radiation, like all the others, can affect the DNA, and produce unpredictable effects. That is why we treat it so carefully."

"Of course, changing the DNA would not be a bad idea." Said another voice, and everyone's eyes turned to see another figure entering the room, a 5,7 feet tall gorilla, with toned build, black fur and yellow colored eyes. He wore a white lab coat and long cargo pants. In his eyes there was some big glasses. He had his hands folded behind his back.

"Doctor Osborne!" said the supervisor as he looked deadly at the gorilla, who seemed not ot notice him, or simply don't care. Speckman cleared his throat as he said "Students, this is one of my colleagues, Gary Osborne. He is one of the most brilliant minds I ever had the pleasure to meet."

"And yet, your projects get preference above mine." The gorilla said camly, as he walked inside like some kind of king. Everybody stared at him, and the gorilla simply looked "The way you talk, Speckman, makes understand that any change in the DNA would be considered some kind of sickness or curse. Curious considering it was mutation that turned us into what we are now."

All the studens whispered among them, as Speckman looked at his colleague and the supervisor rubbed his forehead. The gorilla them spoke "In the start all the life was just a lot of unicellular creatures floating, until one thing happened, a mutation changed one of them, and it started changing, and passing those changes forward, and it, children, was what started the life we know today. If it weren't for the alterations in the peptidic chain of the DNA of those simple organisms they would never had evolved, and we, as we are today, would never exist."

All the students shared looks and  eyed the gorilla. It was just impression, or did the ape sounded a little... crazy?

"Many of my co-workers in here." He said, casting a glance at Speckman and his supervisor "See the modification of DNA induced by things like radiation and chemistry, as something bad. Me, on the other hand, I'm not exactly an adept of this current of thought."

He looked at the students "Imagine, young men and women, if we could control the DNA, and modify a few specific chains of the it to achieve any effect we desire. We could turn any being immune to diseases, we could amplify the physical resilience and strength, we could enhance the senses and give capacities the creature could not possess naturally. The possibilities would be endless."

The students were starting to get worried about this, the ape was sounding a bit too much convinced of this, and it was rather unnerving, it was Bernie the first to spoke "But, sir. Manipulating DNA, it is very dangerous if you are not sure what you are doing. And else, would that be morally wrong?"

The ape looked straight at the dog, and Bernie felt a bit nervous about those eyes that seemed to pierce him "Yeah, I'm aware of those moral limitations. But let me say this, is some points of history, the morality had to be put aside in name of the great advances of science. And if some other scientists were willing to put aside those moral things." He said, casting another glance to Speckman "Then there was going to have no limitations to scientific development."

"OSBORNE!" shouted the supervisor, and for the first time, the ape seemed to take notice about him. The moose stepped closer to him and whipered angrily "We talk about this later, now get back to your labs!"

The ape took a minute, and finally went out of the door, leaving everyone in the room stunned for a while. The supervisor turned to the studnets, and said "Sorry you had to see that. Mr. Osborne is passing by some...... He is nuts!" he said bluntly, and left the room. Speckman spoke again "Okay... anybody has any other question?"

The rest of it went uneventfully, Speckman explained other questions about the emissor of radiation, about how it worked, and that it emitted the equivalent of 15 times the lethal dose of radiation omega, due to it being the necessary to be read by the detectors and analyzed.

After that, Speckman offered to keep guiding the group by the rest of the tuor, and the group accepted. As the rest of the group left, Rick stayed behind to admire more the work, and Penny and Bernie stopped to talk with their father.

"Great thing you do in here, dad." Said Bernie "But, what is of that Osborne?"

"He is one of the scientists that work in here." Speckman said to his daughter and foster son "He works here analyzing genetic diseases, but I guess he would really like to work with genetic experiments. He is almost obsessed about the genetic enhancement of living beings."

He seems like a jerk." Said Penny "I wonder if all gorillas are like that, did you saw the way he looked at you?"

Speckman said then "Yeah, I admit he is a bit difficult to live with after a while, but if you can get close to him time enough, you see that deep inside he is a good person."

"I'm not sure about this." Said Penny, and Speckman knew it was time to change the subjects "Well, I need to help the group not get lost. If you tell your friend that this part of the tour is over, you can catch up with us soon." He said and winked at them, as he left the room.

Penny and Bernie turned around to see Rick seemingly playing with a computer, as if trying to figure out something. Penny groaned and Bernie chuckled as they walked to their friend. "Rick! These are not for playing games." Said Penny, catching the hamster off guard.

"What? What? What is that!?"

"The group moved on." Said Bernie "We gotta catch up with them."

"Already? I thought we were going to see it working!" Rick whined, and Penny just said "Could you stop being such a crying baby? We need to go."

Then the group was ready to leave, until they turned around and meet another one in the door, Penny groaned as she knew who it was, it was the same ape from school, and he looked at them smirking.

"Hey there." Said the ape, and Penny said "Get lost, jerk! We have to catch jup with our group, and you should also go with yours before they leave."

The ape laughed "Those losers? I lost them a while ago. I don't need to be in a group. I go where I want to go."

"So you should consider go to other side." Said Penny, as she tried to guide her friends to outside, but the ape stood in their way. He evaluated Penny, and said "Yah know, for a pretty kitty you got quite a fool mouth." He said, almost seductively, and this just left Penny speechless.

The ape laughed "Yeah, I have this effect on ladies!" he said, and turned his attention to "So, daddy made this for you? So what, you are half cat? It must have been an interesting marriage. You like chasing mices and climbing trees?"

Bernie looked at him fiercely, and he spoke "I'm adopted." Bernie said, and the ape smiled "Oohh, so your real parents left you! And the cats gave you home. Oh, poor doggy."

This made Penny angry, she was not going to let that jerk talk that way with Bern!

"Listen here you jerk!" she said at his face "You can do whatever you want of your life, but you cannot threat to others like that! If you are just a loser who likes making others feel bad, I just can pity you!"

The ape was stunned by the way that cat talked to him, even being smaller, but this shock was soon replaced with anger "Nobody calls me a loser!" he said in anger as he towered in her direction, and Bernie once again wasted no time in stepping on his way.

The ape stared at the dog who was now between him and Penny "You want another one in the guts, puppy?"

"You go walking jerk!" said Rick, as he hid behind Penny and Bernie "You catch Bernie off guard last time, but now he can kick your ass!"

The gorilla snorted, and Rick yelped and hid from sight. Bernie just stared in his direction fiercely, without any sigh of fear. The ape looked at him, and at the room around, and he had an idea.

"Puppy, you like challenges?" he asked, making the three look at him puzzled. "I have a challenge for you." He said "I heard about that 'radiation room'. If you enter there, I'll leave you and your friends alone. Otherwise, I'll follow you for the rest of the day!"

The animals looked surprised at him

"Are you mad?" screeched Penny "That thing is dangerous!"

"Well, if your friend is a coward, then guess I can walk just after you all day, kitty." He said, smirking and winking at Penny, making her stare at him. Bernie looked at her, and back at the ape "I'll do it."

All the eyes turned shocked at Bernie.

"What?" said Penny and Rick

"What?" went the ape, he really did not expected the dog to accept, he thought he was simply going to chicken out, but he could see by the look on Bernie's face that he was serious.

"But if I do, you have to leave my friends alone. Got it?" Bernie said, looking fiercely at the ape's stunned eyes.

But before he got the answer, he was pulled back, and turned around to see Penny's mad face "Are you crazy!?" she screeched at his face "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is in there? What kind of problem we could get if you are in there when someone arrives?"

Bernie looked at her "I just want this guy to leave us alone. And remember what dad said? The room is safe for now, they will only activate it next week. There is no danger."

"It is a RADIATION room! Radiation causes cancer! Have you forgotten about this?"

"I think Bernie should go in!" said Rick, Making Penny look at him as if he had suggested they should rob a back. "I mean, if the room is safe than there is no danger, and the guy will go away!"

And before any of them could say an answer, Rick turned to the ape and said "Okay, big gorilla! Bernie will go inside, but in two conditions! First, you will leave us alone for life, and second, you go there inside with him!"

"Are you nuts!" Penny said as she slapped the back of his head, and they barely noticed the stunned face in the ape's face.

He was cornered now, if he backed away he would be a coward, and he did not wanted that in his reputation. After a few secopnds, he said "Okay! But the dog comes with me at the same time!"

Bernie looked at him, and said "Okay."

"I'm the only reasonable person in here!?" Penny screeched again, and was mostly ignored, save for Bernie "Penny, relax. We are just going inside, stay a minute or two, and then we get out and go back to our groups, nothing bad will happen."

Penny looked at Bern as he said "I promise.", Penny looked in her eyes, and said "I must be as crazy as you to agree with this."

Soon, Bernie and the ape where in front of the door, and both looked at Penny and Rick, Rick gave a thumbs up to Bernie, while Penny simply nodded, a worried look in her face. Bernie looked at the ape, and counted "One... two... three." And then they opened the door, and both of them entered the room.

It should be a square of 12 x 18 feet. In one end, there was what was described as the receptor, and it seemed as a big glass mushroom, seeming to have some kind of receptors in it. Probably it was to detect the waves of energy.

On the other end, there was  what seemed to be the emissor, it was like a beam laser, with spheres in each one of the four arms that were supposed to product the emission of waves, all directed straight at the receptor. Behind it, there was the glass panel that separated the other room, and he could see Penny and Rick. Rick waved at him, and Penny was still looking worried.

The ape looked around, and got closer to the equipment as he lost his fear, and he even made a few poses near the equipment. Bernie also walked closer, and was able to examine the equipment closer, it seemed very interesting. Bernie was no professional to know this, but it seemed very interesting.

Penny looked at Bernie and the ape as they were inside the room, and she was still worried, mainly because they were so close to radioactive related items, and Rick was just excited "Oh man, they are so lucky for being so close to that cool stuff!"

"I just hope nothing happens." Said Penny, and Rick said "Oh, come on, Penny, why are you so worried? What can happen of wrong?" as he said that, he lowered his hand and accidentally he hit a button. Immediately, the door of the room closed.

Bernie and the ape looked at it, and Penny screeched "What have you done!?!?" as she almost hit him with her fist. And Bernie said "Penny? Rick? What happened?" his voice was muffled from inside the room, and they also heard the voice of the ape "Hey! Let me out!"

"Oh! Ah! Sorry... I-I'll fix it!" said Rick as he tried each button trying to hit the right one again, and Penny said "No! Don't touch anything!" But it was too late, a alarm started ringing only in the room as a red light went on.

Everybody seemed to freeze as a computer voice said "Omega radiation emissor activated, getting the emission ready." Inside the room, Bernie and the ape could hear a buzzing as the glass globes in the emissor started to light up lightly with a purple luminosity.

"LET ME OUT!" the ape screamed at the top of his lungs as he slammed the door "LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Rick was crazy now, hitting every single button in the console, trying in vain to undo what he had just made. Penny ran to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked, it didn't moved a single inch.

"Let me out!" the ape shouted "I don't want to die here!" and the buzzing was just getting louder as the light in the bulbs intensified. The ape was in complete panic, Bernie was also scared, but he knew who to deal with it far better.

"No, no, NO! I can't end in here! This is all your fault!" said the ape as he pointed an accusingly finger to Bernie, who said "How this is my fault? You was the one who gave the idea of we entering in here!"

"You made me come with you! And Why you had to accepted? You should have chickened out! Then I was going to have the rest of a nice day! You jerk!" The ape shouted, blind in anger as he jumped over Bernie. But the dog was shifter, and jumped out of the way, and the aspe hit his head in the metal part of the emissor, not form far had enough to damage it, but strong enough to stun himself.

Penny had left the door, and was back at the panel, and looked to the glass, to see the ape clutching his head next to the receptor as the lights of the emissor intensified.

"What the heck is he doing?" asked Penny, making Rick also look.

Bernie looked as the ape groaned and tried to get up in front of the emissor, he was barely on his feet when the voice said "Activating the Omega Radiation Emission!" and the buzzing became unbearable, and the globes shone bright.

Bother animals became action less. The ape was right in the way of the emission!

Bernie was motionless for a few seconds. The man was going to be hit by radiation, and he was there. He looked at the ape, and the emissor, and in there, he did the only thing he could think about doing in that moment: he ran straight to the emissor, and supported his body with his arms. He was using his own body as shield!

When Penny and Rick saw that, their eyes widened, and so did the ape's, as Penny screamed "BERNIE! NO!" but it was too late.

As the emission started, the lights on the whole labs went off, startling many of the presents in there, that were unaware of what was going on.

Inside the room, the emissor sent purple colored light right into Bernie's body, an quantity of energy that hit square on his chest and spreaded to the rest of his body. The sensation to Bernie was like something was passing through his body, and flooding through him, still with a warming feeling, and yet, something totally indescribable.

To the viewers, the dog had his mouth wide in a mute scream as there was a strong purple light into his body, so bright that it was possible to see his bones through his flesh, skin and clothes. It was like an alien view, and for Penny and Rick, it was terrifying, for it was happening with their friend, and they could do nothing to help.

What none of them could see was what was happening in microscopic level. The waves of power hit each cell, each part of his body in each components, from the flesh to each single fur of his body. And each part of his nerves were tingling with the energy as it hit them, but never went back or through. The energy spreaded from cell to cell as it was accumulated and overcharging the cells.

It all laste for ten seconds, and after that, the equipment finally shut off. In the whole labs, the light returned, and everyone resumed their activities, none of them wondering just for a second that something strange was happening.

Back in the room, as the light faded, Bernie went limp and fell to the ground. The door immediately unlocked and opened. And Penny didn't even waited it to open completely as she ran inside, not caring about radiation or contamination.

"BERNIE!" she screamed as she ran in his direction, and Rick came soon after her. The ape was just motionless as he looked at the fallen dog in front of him. The dog had just saved his life. And now he was there, probably dead as the cat held him.

Penny turned his body and looked at his face, he seemed pale, and touching her she could feel his body seemed to be hot. She was worrie "Bern? Bern? Ber, talk to me! Bern? BERNIE!" she screamed, tears going down her face, and then, Bernie groaned, and opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, before opening them fully.

He looked at the cat, and said "Penny?" she hugged him close at this, and sobbed. Everybody took a few moments to recover form what happened, and Bernie asked "What went in here?"

Everybody was surprised that he seemed not to remember, but he remembered as soon as they explained to him what went. Bernie was surprised that he felt okay even after that, just a bit tired.

Penny insisted they should go to see someone, but Bernie kept assuring that he was okay, and after a while, Bernie finally was able to convince her to let him take them back to the group.

So, Bernie, Penny and Rick went their own way, while the ape take his own way, not before giving one last look at the dog. And they resumed, without having any effects form what had just transpired.

Or so was what they thought.

If only they could see what was happening to every cell in Bernie's body...


	4. Episode 001: Comes the Thunder - part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the events into the room, Bernie is behaving strangelly, and this leaves Penny very worried about him...

The three friends took little time to find their group again and where warmly greeted by Speckman, and the tour went on. They passed by many more rooms, talking about more projects and future ambitious, and many of the students were greatly impressed, but there were some that were busy thinking about other things.

Rick was looking to every side and them at his own hands; he looked guiltier than a bank robber in a police office. Penny was looking at Bernie at every few minutes, worried out of her mind for Bernie had been exposed to a quantity of that mysterious radiation that would kill any living being. She looked at him every few seconds to see if his fur was not starting to fall or if he seemed like he was going to have convulsions and fall to the ground.

Bernie tried to pay attention, but he was having some difficulties.

He felt that strange warming feeling in his body, and there was this strange tingling in his head, Bernie confused it with headache, but he didn't knew it was much more than that.

In that same moment, many of his nerves were crazy making connections with a lot of more energy than they should have. His cells were working crazy as they processed this energy into them, and spreaded it to each other by osmosis, causing the feeling of heat and tingling that Bernie was feeling.

And after a few minutes, Bernie started to feel slightly dizzy. He tried to shake it off, but his dizziness grew, and when the Tour was almost in the end, Bernie had to support himself against the wall, and he held his head as he groaned

"Bern!" Penny said as she rushed to her brother, and so did Rick. Speckman noticed it, and walked to them as they stood in there "Bernie, are you alright?"

Before he or Penny could say anything, Rick said "HE IS ALRIGHT!" this startled everyone "Of course he is alright! Because nothing happened! Why would he not be alright if nothing happened!? He is perfectly fine because there was no accident and nothing wrong happened! Everything is perfectly alright!" he finished with a smile faker than a piece of glass passing by a diamond.

Penny felt like punching him in the face, and Bernie was just too dizzy to feel anything about the situation. Speckman just looked at him, a bit suspicious, but Penny quickly intermitted "Bernie is just a bit... dizzy."

"Really? Why?"

This made the friends freeze, Rick seemed in panic as Penny tried to think in an answer, but Bernie answered first "Something I ate, maybe. I'm not sure."

This answer seemed to be enough, as Speckman said "Oh, okay then, well, if you feel bad, I can drive you back home. I'm sure they won't mind me taking a while to go home."

"No, you don't need." Said Penny "We are okay."

"Actually." Bernie cut out "I think I want to go home." He said, looking dizzier than before "I don't feel quite good."

Penny and Rick looked at him, and Speckman said "Okay then, if you feel bad, I'll go talk to your supervisor and tell you and Penny are going home earlier because you don't feel very good. I promise I'll take just one minute."

Speckman walked off, and Penny turend back to Bernie "Bern, are you okay!?" she asked urgently, and Bernie supported against the wall as he said "I don't know, first I was dizzy, and now I'm feeling a bit tired."

"Are you sick? It was the radiation, wasn't it!? This is your fault, Rick! We need to tell dad now!"

"Penny." Bernie said, holding her shoulder as he tried not to go down to his knees "If someone discover that we entered into a place that was forbidden, and that I was exposed to radiation, it will be a problem not only to us, but to dad also. It was HIS lab, and it was his project. He will be in trouble maybe even more than us."

"But Bernie!" Penny screeched "You are sick after the radiation hit you! You might die!"

"I'm just tired, Penny!" Bernie insisted "I'm sure I'm not going to melt into fluid in a few seconds." He said, and Rick finally chimed in "And if you did, they could fix you into the labs. I heard they can cure almost anything."

Penny got ready to deliver a punch on his face, making him yelp and dodge, but Bernie held her arm softly, and was able to make she divorce about it just with a look. She could just drop it and look at the ground.

Speckman came back after a few minutes, and was guided Penny and Bernie to his car as they waved goodbye to Rick, who looked at them, looking worried and guilty.

Speckman drove a black colored car, and was now driving Bernie and Penny back home. Speckman had to keep his attention turned to the road, but was aware enough of his kids in the backseat to see that they both were acting strangely.

Penny didn't stopped looking at Bernie. She just couldn't avoid, her brother had been bathed in radiation! She was just looking at him, as she was very worried. It was that ape's fault for making the challenge, and Rick's fault for activating the thing, and her fault, for not having stopped him. If something bad happened to Bernie, she was never going to forgive any of them! Nor the ape, nor Rick, and not even herself.

Bernie was yawned as the features of the city passed by them as they drove in the car. Suddenly Bernie was feeling tired, very tired. He could feel his eyes getting wet at he suddenly was feeling like he had run a lot. He looked at the features as his eyes fought to remain open. He was feeling more and more inclined just to lay in the seat and sleep.

Speckman noticed this behavior in his children, and as a caring father, of course he was getting worried by seeing them like that.

Bernie was feeling tired as he looked at the window, the features of the street passing by them as they passed by the places, passing by the blocks, and going in direction to their house. As Bernie saw the buildings and other things pass by them, his eyes seemed to grow heavier and it was becoming harder to keep them open. He was feeling more and more tired, as if he had ben awake for the whole night before.

He wanted to close his eyes and sleep. Just surrender to the sleep and pass all day sleeping in there. But, they would be home soon, he would be able to climb up to his room and lay on his own bed and sleep.

He just needed to remain awake for a few more minutes. Just a while more.

Just a while more...

After a few minutes that to Bernie seemed like an eternity, they finally arrived in front of their home, and Bernie could lazily open the door. He stepped out, and shook his head to remain up and awake, his legs felt weak, and he had to search support in the car not to fall to the ground.

"Bern!" Penny exclaimed and ran to him, to help him get support, what Bernie was very thankful to.

Speckman noticed, and said "Bernie, are you alright?"

"Y-yeah." Said Bernie "I'm fine, just a bit tired." But his voice and the way he was acting said that he was not as good as he was trying to pretend. Speckman loopked closely to him, and placed a hand on the dog's forehead.

"Bernie, you are burning in fever! And you are sweating!" he said as he felt the heat and the sweat cumulating under the dogs fur "Are you sure you don't want me to take you to the hospital?"

"I'm fine." Bernie said "I... just need to... rest a bit... in my bed..." Bernie said, those words getting out more sincere than he actually wanted to.

Speckman looked at him "Yeah, I could stay in here..."

"You need to go back to work." Bernie said "I'm going to be fine."

Speckman looked at him, and after almost a minute, he said "Okay then, if there is any problem don't be afraid of calling me. I'll come right away." Was what he said, and waved goodbye to them as he drove back to his work.

As soon as his car turned, Bernie turned back, escaping from Penny's support and rushing back to home. He was feeling so tired, and was also dizzy, it was hard to walk straight. He quickly searched in his pocket for the key, ignoring Penny's calls. He took a few second to fit the key in the lock and open the door.

As the door swung open, he rushed inside, without looking for anything. He barely saw mom's note in the table telling she had went to see a friend and that was going back to dinner. Bernie was too focused on getting on his room and crumbling down in the bed.

"Bern!" Penny called, making him turn around to see her. Oh man, he just wanted to let himself fall back and slip in unconsciousness.

"Where are you going?" she asked "We need to call an ambulance! You need someone to examine you!"

"Penny, we already talked." Bernie said, just wanting to skip the discussion and be able to get onto his bed.

"Bernie! Look at you! You are not 'okay'! You need a medic!"

"If someone know what happened dad will get in problem!" Bernie said at her "There will be investigations, he might be fired and his project might be canceled! We can't do that to dad!"

"B-but..." Penny tried, but Bernie said again "I just need to rest a little." He turned around to walk back to his room, his legs seeming to be made out of concrete "I'll be brand new once I sleep a bit."

And with that said, Penny could only see as Bernie climbed the stairs and walked off to his room.

Out of her sight, Bernie could let out a huge breath he had been holding back. Bernie now could feel the sweat cumulating in his eyebrows, and his breath was strong now, as if he was not able to drawn enough oxygen from the air. His vision now was not only blurred, but doubled.

Bernie stumbled across the hallway to the close distance to his room, and finally was able to reach the door.

Bernie almost fell to the floor as he opened the door, breathing heavily as he closed the door behind himself and, unable to hold himself anymore, he finally dropped to the ground, breathing heavily.

He was able to summons some strength into his body, and struggle to get near his bed. He lifted his arm, and grabbed his mattress, only for his arm to fall back and drag the mantress to the ground with him.

Bernie felt tired, felt cold, and felt spent. He barely cared that he was on the ground, he just pulled the mattress over himself, and covered his own body. His doubled vision barely bothering it as it became darker. Bernie finally allowed himself to rest, and fall into a deep and dreamless slumber.

* * *

Penny was left in the living room, having just watched Bernie go to his room and hearing him close the door.

Even after what Bernie had just said, Penny still couldn't fight that feeling inside of her that something just wasn't right. That something really bad was happening to Bernie, and that she was responsible for it.

Penny had that way of strong and independent girl, but when it came to her family, she was very worried and willing to do anything. She was very caring about Bernie because he was her brother, and she didn't wanted anything bad to happen to him.

She sighed, as she walked to the couch an sat in it, she turned the tv on, only to try and distract her mind. Cartoons. She was too old for it. Comedy show. She wasn't in the mood. News. She was too worried to care and to hear about even more tragedies. Documentary about history.

Yeah, it seemed to be the best option about now.

She just laid there, watching the documentary about the events leading to the second world war. Penny just thought that it would distract her mind. But it didn't quite worked.

Her thoughts were still wondering to Bernie, and the way he went off to his room that quickly. She was still thinking that she would call the medics and have them take Bernie to a check up, even if there was no problem.

But, Bernie was bathed in radiation! How could be nothing wrong? How could he be fine!?! It made no sense at all!

Bernie could be up there throwing up and his fur could be falling off! He needed to be examined! There was no way of someone passing by what he had and don't be affected in any way!

Penny felt her stomach go wild with these feelings and worries. She laid her had in the couch, and watched at the documentary playing on the tv, on the images of black and white.

She was going to watch for just five more minutes and she was going to Bernie's room to see what was going on. To see if he really was fine and if he needed anything. If there was anything happening them she was going to call the hospital in the same instant.

Penny just looked at the documentary, barely paying attention to the images or to what the people were talking about.

The events of that day had been tiring to her. All those feelings and worries and all the sudden actions took it's tool on her, and only now it was catching up. Penny barely even noticed, as she just stared into the tv as her eyes slowly closed.

* * *

 

_Penny could just watch without any action as the paramedics took the barrow out of the house. The paramedics seeming oddly calm as they took the patient in such a state._

_Penny could barely look at Bernie in that state._

_Most of his fur had fallen off, and his bare skin was exposed in the face, his lips were blackened and his eyes were red in color. His face was a picture of pain, and he fought to breathe, as if every breath took all of his strength._

_Penny could hear the medics saying "He was exposed to radiation. There is nothing to do for him now._

_"Maybe if he had received treatment earlier, maybe he wasn't like that now." Said the other "Now there is nothing that can be done."_

_Someone crying called Penny's attention. She turned her head just to see her mother crying in a chair, and her faqther trying to confort her, but he also had tears in his face._

_"Mom! Dad!"_

_Her mother looked at her, her face sadded beyong reason "Penny..." she said "How could you let this happen!?!"_

_Penny was actionless under her mother's eyes, she could do nothing at that, she even tried to talk "I-it all happened suddenly!" she tried to say "B-Bernie keep saying he was alright! He said we could get in trouble! That dad could lose his job!"_

_"It would have been better!" her father shouted, making her jump "I would have found a way of getting out of this! My work wasn't worth losing Bernie! His safety was the most important! What were you think!?!"_

_His tone made Penny flinch inside, she saw her father like that in very rare times, and never with her or Bernie. His face was in pain, and he could just lay his head in his wifes shoulder as she cried in his'._

_And there was nothing that Penny could do. It WAS her faul. She let Bernie get in there. She didn't called help in the same moment. She let Bernie and Rick keep secret about it instead of searching for help. It was her fault, and nothing was going to change that._

_"Penny..." someone rasped, and she was forced to look back at Bernie. The dog now was facign her with his reddened eyes, there was blood coming out of them, and of his nose, and of his mouth. He had a hand outstretched in her direction, as if he wanted her to help him, as if she could somehow give him support._

_"Penny..." Bernie called again as his hand tried in vain to meet her._

_Penny looked at him as it was all her fault, tears streaming down at her face as she could only turn her eyes away and say "Bernie... I'm so sorry!" she started to sob as she could still hear Bernie's rasped voice called for her_

_"Penny"_

_"Penny"_

_"Penny"_

* * *

 "Penny."

"Penny?"

Penny was crying silently in there, as she suddenly opened her eyes, and meet her mother looking at her. She was wearing a blue colored shirt and white long skirt, and was carrying a yellow purse in her shoulder.

Penny looked at her mother, who looked worried at her "Mom?"

"You must have fallen asleep while you were watching tv." She said, the tv that before was working now was turned off. "You were crying, were you having a nightmare?"

Penny looked at her, and could only mumble an answer of "Yes. I guess so." And then she remembered something and turned to her mother "Didn't you said you were coming back for dinner?"

"Yeah, and I came, it is nine a.m."

"What?" Penny said as she jumped and looked at the clock. It was truth. She had blanked out for almost four hours!

BERNIE!

Penny jumped out of the bed, and past by her mother

"Penny?" she asked as her daughter ran in a rush past her and up the stairs.

How could she have slept in such a situation? What had happened to Bernie in these four hours? How was he now?

Penny went up the stairs, almost tripping in her own legs as she did it rushing. She arrived in the door of Bernie's door, and opened it. Looking around, she saw the empty bed, and a few pillows in the ground.

When she took a better look, she froze as she realize that the mass in the ground were not pillows.

It was Bernie! He was in the ground, curled over himself with the mantress over him, laying in the ground and seeming to be out cold.

"Bernie!" Penny cried out and ran to him. She touched his body and he felt warm, and seemed to be breathing. But this did not diminished her worry. She shook him "Bernie! Bern? Bernie!"

After a few seconds, Bernie groaned, and blinked a few times, before opening his eyes, and raising enough to sit in the ground.

At first he seemed to be confused, and looked around the room before his eyes focused in Penny's worried face. He blinked a few times, and said "Penny?"

She looked at him and hugged him tight "Oh Bernie." She said "I'm so happy that you're alive! I saw you in the ground and I thought..." she trailed off, as she was unable to finish the sentence. She was just too happy to see that Bernie was still breathing, this making her feel more secure.

Bernie was still a bit confused, and could ask her "How long have I slept?"

Penny was still hugging him when she said "Almost four hours. Mom just arrived."

This surprised Bernie. He didn't thought he was going to blank out for so long! He must be even more tired than he thought.

After a while, she finally let go of him, and said "Bernie, how are you feeling?"

Bernie took a moment to answer, and taking a look at his own body, and back at Penny, he said "I... feel good." And he said more "Actually... I feel great! And... hungry." He admitted.

For a moment, Penny thought that he was kidding, but he pushed the blankets off himself and got up, leaving them into the ground. And he walked to the door out, just walking out and leaving Penny behind, a bit stunned, before she went after him.

"Mom!" Bernie called "Dinner is ready?" he asked loudly as he went down the stairs, his mother was in the living room, and she turned to him.

"Bernie!" said Penny as she went after him

"Bernie, sweetie, are you still with the same clothes of this morning?"

"Yeah, I didn't had time to change, when the dinner will be ready?" Bernie insisted, surprised in how hungry he actually felt after a long nap like that. Bernie felt like he hadn't eaten since yesterday.

"Darling, I just arrived." She said with a smile "Just let me get a bath and then I'll start to prepare dinner. Oh, and Bernie." She says, getting the dog's attention "I wasn't able to find other meat for you in the market, I only found fish. Guess we will have to ask some food for you since you don't like it."

"Oh, okay, could you ask now?" Bernie asked eagerly, what surprised both his mother and sister.

"Bernie, are you okay?" asked Rose, worried about her adopted son, and Bernie quickly said "I'm fine, just feel a bit hungry. If we ask now than when it must arrive in here? I'm starving!" Bernie said.

Rose and Penny shared a look, and Rose said "Well, guess I can call the food now, what about a pizza?"

"Sounds great, could you call then now?" asked Bernie, almost tripping on his words. Both Rose and Penny were surprise, for Bernie normally didn't acted like that.

"Bernie, what is wrong with you?" asked Rose, and Bernie seemed to take notice, and he said "Sorry. Is just... man, I'm so hungry." He said, clutching his belly as he spoke. Actually, his belly wasn't hurting, he just knew he wanted to eat something, and that was how he knew he was hungry. He just felt like he needed to eat something, and as soon as possible.

Rose seemed to get moved by him "Oh, Bernie, I guess you must had a long day. Your father told me that you were not feeling good in the labs. I'll call dinner for you." She said, and went for the phone. Bernie was thanks full for this, and Penny, could just look worried at Bernie. First, he was deadly tired, and now, he felt hungry? Just what of earth all that radiation had done to him?

Rose ordered that pizza, extra big, to Bernie's own request, it was going to take at least twenty-five minutes to arrive. Bernie told he was going to wait, and Rose left with them fifty dollars for payment for the pizza, and went to her room to bath and then she was going to get the dinner ready for the rest of the family.

As soon as she went off, Bernie ran to the kitchen. Penny soon followed him, and got him picking up some apples, in one he had already gave a big bite.

"Bernie!" Penny said, and Bernie turned to her with a innocent look "Mmph?"

"Mom just called Pizza and you're going to eat?" Penny said, with her hands in her hips "You are so hungry you just can't wait just a little?"

Bernie chewed the apple that was on his mouth and gulped before speaking "Sorry. I'm starving! I'm just having a quick bit before the pizza arrives." Bernie said, and ate half of another apple with one bite soon after.

He went to the living room with some apples on his arms and a few bananas. Penny just looked at him as he carried all of that to the room.

They both were in the living room, Bernie had ate all the apples and the babanas in just ten minutes, and he had went back to kitchen to pick more. He made two trips into the kitchen, in the first getting more apples, and in the second he got a cookie package, that he ended rather quickly as they watched tv.

Penny could just look at him as he ate rather quickly, as if he never had seen food before. Bernie was never this hungry before. It had to have something to do with the radiation and all the thing.

Penny had no time to think about it as the front door opened and they heard a voice calling "I'm home."

It was their father.

"Hi dad!" said Bernie and Penny at the same time, and Speckman returned the compliment, and asked "Bernie, are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, much, just hungry." Said Bernie to his adopted father "Did you saw someone delivering a pizza in here when you entered?"

Speckman chuckled "Guess not, your mother is there?"

"Taking a bath." Said Penny "She is going to serve dinner soon."

Speckman smiled, and left Penny and Bernie into the living room as he went upstairs to meet with his lovely wife. Bernie and Penny stayed into the living room, watching tv, but Bernie was barely paying attention to the program as he said "When the pizza is going to come?"

Penny looked surprised to him "Seriously?" she asked "You are still hungry after eating that much?"

"Yeah." Bernie nodded absent-minded as he said it "I feel like I could eat a horse... or two."

* * *

Jeff went inside his room, just in time to see his wife finishing wearing her clothing, she was wearing a white colored shirt and skirt, a set that combined with her, and remembered him of just how lucky he was for having her in his life.

He smiled, and walked from behind, until he hugged her, surprising her, but she smiled when she saw his face. He kissed her cheek and she purred in his touch. "Welcome home, darling." She said to him.

"Is always good to be home after a long day." He said back to her, and she smiled, and turned around, putting her arms around his neck, and pulling him in for a deep kiss, which he received with happiness and eager.

They shared that kiss for a while, before finally breaking apart and looking lovingly into each other's eyes.

"I love you." Said Jefferson, and Rose answered "I love you too."

He smiled at her, and then, he brought the subject "Is Bernie okay?"

Rose looked at him "He seems to be okay. But he says he is very hungry."

Jeff looked at her  _Hungry?_  "Just how hungry he said he was?" he asked, and she answered "He said he was very hungry, he asked me about dinner before anything else, and he insisted to ask for pizza before I did anything else. He looked to be very hungry."

Speckman reflected about it "This is strange." He said, and his wife looked puzzled to him, and he said "This afternoon Bernie was suddenly feeling strange. He was looking very tired, and he was feverish and cold sweating, and he needed support of Penny not to fall."

Rose listened as he described what had happened to Bernie, and was quite worried for hearing of it. She had received a call from her husband earlier telling that Bernie and Penny had gone earlier home because Bernie was not feeling okay, but she didn't got details of what exactly was her adopted son feeling. Knowing it more detailed made her know a bit more about Bernie's conditions, and got more worried.

"And now, he is hungry." Speckman said "I wonder if those things are related." He said more to himself, inquisitive as he always was, both as scientist and as father.

"You think that there are anything wrong with Bernie?" Rose asked, and Speckman said "I'm not sure. It could be a lot of things. Maybe a virus or another thing. Maybe it could be just a cold. I'm really not sure." He looked at his wife "We must keep an eye open, in any case he starts feeling bad."

Rose nodded, and with that they both separated, Rose saying that she was going to prepare dinner, and Jeff going to the bathroom, and started taking a long bath after a long day at work. It was very good at him to relax in the hot water after a long day such as that.

* * *

 

Rose went down and to the kitchen, and started cooking the fish in the oven. The fish slowly started to cook, letting out some aromatic smoke as it was cooked to perfection. Rose purred as she felt the delicious smell of the fish. But she wasn't the only one feeling that smell.

At the living room, Bernie felt a smell in the air, that he could not identify, but he knew it was of food. It remembered him of how hungry he was feeling.

"Man, when the pizza will arrive?" Bernie said, more to himself than to Penny, that was right by his side. Penny was about to say something, when the doorbell rang. Bernie then, surprisingly quick, raised from the seat and ran to the door, leaving Penny behind.

Bernie eagerly opened the door, and faced a squirrel delivery boy, who had the pizza box in his hands "Someone asked for an extra big  pepperoni pizza?"

"I did!" Bernie said in a rush as he picked up the pizza and opened the box, just when Penny arrived next to him, and she gave a look in the pizza. It had anchovy.

"Sir, excuse me but we asked without anchovy." She said to the delivery boy "My brother hates fish, including anchovy, I don't think he is going to eat..." Penny was taking, but trailed as she looked to Bernie and saw he had just taken a big bite in the pizza and made a delighted face.

"Bernie." Penny said "It has anchovy! You hate anchovy!"

"I do?" asked Bernie "Well, this one is delicious anyway!" he said as he gave another bite, and brought the whole box to the living room, leaving Penny behind slightly stunned. The Delivery boy's voice called her back to reality "It is thirty-five dollars and fifty cents."

Penny turned to him, and offered him the money her mother left for the pizza. She barely noticed when she received the change back. She turned to Bernie, and saw him taking big, happy bites in the pizza, not even caring to have a plate or anything as his hands got stayned, but he didn't seemed to mind it.

Penny walked close to him, he was eating eagerly, almost voraciously, and she said "Bernie?"

"Hmm?" Bernie turned to her, an innocent look in his face again and his mouth full of pizza and stained into the condiments. Penny asked "Are you sure you are okay?"

Bernie gulped down and said "Yeah, pretty sure. Man, I didn't knew pizza was so delicious! Is the best I've ever eat!" And he took another big bite, ending another piece of pizza and getting another. Penny could only look worried at Bernie, but soon she was called.

"Penny! Jeff! Dinner is ready!"

It was her mother, and Jefferson was already coming down the stairs, wearing long sleeved white T-shirt and long legged blue pants. He walked to the kitchen "It smells delicious!" he said as he walked down, and saw Bernie feasting in the Pizza that was brought to him "See you're already having your dinner, Bern. I'll let you eat." He said, but he noticed that Bernie seemed to be rather voracious on the pizza, but he said nothing about it.

Bernie remained in the living room, savoring his pizza, while the rest of the family reunited into the dinner room, right to the side, and Rose revealed a beautiful and deliciously-smelling piece of salmon. Both Jeff and Penny licked their chops as they felt the delicious smell. Bernie should be the only one in the house that disliked fish.

The family served themselves of pieces of the salmon, being careful to remove the fishbones, as there were a lot of them, and having one in the throat was very uncomfortable. And soon, they were all eating, enjoying the meal.

"Mom, this salmon is great!" said Penny, and her mother thanked the compliment. The salmon was indeed delicious, Rose was very talented with cooking. But even a well cooked and seasoned salmon would not grant Bernie to eat it. The dog really disliked the taste of fish, and hated even more the fishbones, even having to separate them from the fish. Maybe it was because one time he got one stuck on his throat and had to be taken to the hospital because of it.

The family thought it funny after the initial scare had ended, but Bernie was still having a bad experience from that, and told that day that he was refusing to eat fish ever again.

Bernie just stood there, on the living room, watching tv as he ate his pizza, and time went by, as well as the show, Bernie took his hand to the box, only to find that it was empty. He had eaten the whole pizza without even noticing!

Man, just how hungry he actually was?

And the worse: he was still feeling hungry.

Bernie was wondering what he could do now, when his nose got the smell of something. It was something cooked, and it smelled delicious. Sniffing the air and following the smell, Bernie got off the couch and walked to the dinner room.

"This was delicious." Said Jefferson, as he finished cleaning his mouth with a handkerchief, he and the family had finished their portion of the salmon, and now there was almost 2/3 of it still to be eaten. It was a generous amount of salmon

"Guess we still have it for tomorrow, also." Said Rose, and she was about to pick it up and take it to the kitchen, when they noticed Bernie, sniffing the air, and walking as guided by the smell, almost like a zombie. He stopped in the table, and his eyes fixated in the salmon.

The family looked at him for a few moments, and then Bernie did something unexpected. He picked a fork, and dove it in the salmon, and took the thing into his mouth. He moaned as he chewed it.

The family just stared at him "Bernie." Said Jeff "Didn't you hated fish?"

"I do." Said Bernie, still chewing, and taking another forkful of the salmon "But this one is really good." He sais as he chewed it "The best I ever tasted in my life!" And without any warning, Bernie picked up the whole plate with what was left of the salmon, and carried it with him, leaving the family stunned.

Bernie had went straight to the kitchen, and the family, after recovering went after him.

They meet Bernie with the door of the freezer open, and he seemed to be digging at something in there. Bernie was eating the whole salmon, and what was most stunning, he seemed to be swallowing the fishbone and not care about it!

Bernie looked at them, who only stared at him, half stunned, half scared, and he said "The best salmon in the world!" and he kept eating, and he also picked a few more things in the freezer. A can of ham, some grapes, and even some frozen cheeseballs.

He was able to balance it all and passed by his family, saying "Good night." With his mouth still full of salmon, and passed by them, and seemed to be walking to his bedroom. The family was still stunned as they watched the dog go his way.

"He took the whole salmon." Said Jefferson

"And the frozen cheeseballs." Said a stunned Penny

And Rose, finally said "There is something wrong with Bernie."

The family could agree about this one thing. There was something going on, and while Jeff and Rose could not pinpoint what was it, Penny could tell very well what could have to do with it, but she just couldn't tell, no matter how much she wanted.

She could just watch as the dog went upstairs with all the food, and eating a thing that, under normal circumstance, he would avoid eating at any cost.

There was something up with Bernie, this was impossible to deny.


	5. Episode 001: Comes the Thunder - part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After waking up, Bernie starts to notice that there is something different...

Bernie was woke up by the sound of his alarm clock. He groaned as the loud ringing was making his ears hurt. It was just him, or the sound seemed louder than before?

Bernie groaned as he shifted in bed, he was surrounded by the remains o fhte things he ate in the previous night. The plate of the salmon, the remains of the grapes and the small box of the cheese balls.

Bernie could still feel the taste of the salmon on his mouth. Before, that taste seemed delicious and made him moan in satisfaction, but now, it seemed to be sour on his mouth, and made him cringe. How could he think that thing was delicious?

Bernie rubbed his tongue on the roof of his mouth, trying to get rid of the taste of fish. And while this, the alarms clock was still ringing loudly, Bernie ears were starting to hurt slightly form the ringing. Bernie was completely sure that the clock was louder than before. Did someone altered the volume?

Groaning loud, Bernie put his hand on the clock, and hear da crunching sound.

Opening his eyes, Bernie looked over, and saw that he had crushed the alarm clock with his hand.

Retreating his hand back, he just stared at the destroyed remains of the clock.  _Oh man!_  Berni thought  _I must have used more strength than I wanted! Mom and dad are going to pull my ears because of this_.

Slowly, looking around, Bernie saw his room, and the remains of his yesterday meal. He was going to take it downstairs as soon as he could. He looked over himself, and saw he was still wearing the same clothes he went to school the previous day. Smelling his shoulder, he felt sick from the smell. Man, he needed a bath.

Bernie yawned wide as he shook himself wake. He opened the door and looked at the bathroom in the end of the hallway.

He saw Penny, looking tired and groggy, walking in direction of the bathroom.

Oh, no! Bernie was not going to wait for her to finish again, he needed a bath, and needed it first.

Bernie rushed forward, running in direction of the bathroom, and he himself didn't realize just how fast he was going.

Penny only saw a blur passing by her and a rush of wind in her fur and yelped as the door was closed with a slam in front of her. After a few seconds se recovered "W-what? Who is in there?" Penny asked, as she knocked the door.

Her answer come as Bernie's voice, saying "I'll be quick!"

Bernie was relieved that now3 he was going to have the bathroom to himself. He had not to rush to empty his bladder, and he could enjoy the hot water.

Bernie got rid of his clothes and entered in the steaming water of the shower, shivering as the warm and comfortable feeling spread into his body and soaked his fur. The steam entered his nose and it shook him completely awake.

Bernie even felt bad for having to leave the hot water, but he needed to spare it for Penny. He didn't wanted  _her_  to tell he monopolized the bathroom. He walked out and dried himself, and stood in front of the mirror. He picked the tube of toothpaste and squeezed it. When suddenly the paste flew out of it, staining the mirror.

Bernie stared at the paste staining the mirror. Man, he was using his strength a lot more than he wanted today. Bernie picked a few of the paste into the mirror and used it to brush his teeth. After that, he started using some toilet paper to clean the mirror the best he could. And as soon as he did it, he tied the towel around his waist and went outside.

He meet Penny and Jeff talking in there. His foster parent turned to him and said "Bernie we need to talk..." but he stopped, and he and Penny stared at Bernie. And after a few seconds, he said "Bernie... when did you started working out?"

Bernie blinked surprised at him, and then looked down at his own body. Bernie than was surprised himself. His body was slightly more toned than before, and he now had abs. He seemed more muscled now, on his chest and on his arms. That was the first time Bernie had noticed this change on his body.

Bernie looked at himself for a few moments, and turned back to his father. The silence remained for a few moments, before Bernie said "What?"

Jefferson looked at him for a few moments, and finally was able to say "Nevermind. Bernie, we need to talk about yesterday."

Bernie panicked a little "Could be later? I need to get dressed." He barely waited for an answer has he passed by them and rushed back to his room

"Bernie!" Jeff called, but Bernie slammed the door behind himself before his father could say anything else. He left behind a worried Jeff and Penny. Jeff didn't knew what was going on with Bernie, and Penny... she just was worried, and very much.

* * *

Once in his bedroom, Bernie could give a good look at himself. Yeah, he looked more toned, he touched his own body, checking his muscles, and they felt firmer than before. Not only that, but also, Bernie was feeling better than before. He felt strong, he felt great. Actually, Bernie didn't remembered felling so good before.

This was strange. How did his muscles bulked up like that overnight? It had anything to do with the omega radiation? Was he really will? But if he was, then why was he feeling so good? Shouldn't he be feeling bad if he was will? And what kind of radiation made you bulk up?

There were a lot of questions in Bernie's mind. Only thinking about them wasn't going to answer then. Bernie was more worried at his father suddenly wanting to know more about yesterday.

Bernie knew he had acted very out of normal yesterday, and he knew his family had the right of feeling worried. What worried him was that his father could interrogate him and discover what happened. He was just wondering what could happen if anyone knew. Bernie was going to have to be careful.

Bernie soon got dressed, he was wearing  black boxers, white shirt, blue jeans pants and green colored T-shirt. Bernie quickly got dressed, and went outside of his room. He was now heading downstairs, and meet his family in the dinner room. All eyes lay on him as he walked in.

All the eyes were worried at him, and Bernie felt a bit uncomfortable for being target of so much attention. Walking slowly, he sat on the breakfast table, and started eating toast. The silence lasted for a few moments, before Jeff broke it.

"So, Bernie, are you feeling alright?" the black cat asked, what granted the dog to look at him, as he continued "You seemed quite strange yesterday. You didn't seemed very good, are you feeling better?"

Bernie swallowed and said "Yeah, I'm feeling better." He said, and after a moment of pondering, he said "Actually, I think I feel better than better. I feel... really good." Bernie said, and this caused Penny and Rose to share a worried look, while Jeff kept looking at Bernie.

"I see..." the black cat said, and then he asked "So, any idea what made you feel that way?"

This made Bernie freeze for a moment, but he was able to hide it well, and he said "Hmm... it was something I eat... maybe? I don't know. I just started feeling bad all of sudden, and I woke up hungry... Oh! By the way, the plates are still in my bed, want me to pick it?" Bernie asked quite ashamed.

"I'll pick it up, don't worry." Said Rose "But are you sure you are okay now?" she asked, worried about Bernie.

"Of course I am!" Bernie said beaming "I feel very good! I feel great and full of energy!" he said, as he kept eating "I wonder if was something I ate before sleeping."

"You ate a lot of things." Said Penny "Including salmon. You  _hate_  salmon! And you even swallowed the fishbones! You hate fishbones even more." She said as she looked at him. Bernie too was quite surprised, he barely noticed any fishbone into the salmon, for what he could remember. He also thought that the fish had actually none.

"I guess I was really hungry." Said Bernie, scratching the back of his head. "Even that thing seemed to have a good taste." Bernie said as he cringed "It felt like I have not eat in days!"

Jeff looked at him and asked again "And you have any idea of what could have caused this hungry?"

"Nope." Bernie said as he tried his best to look innocent, and Jeff asked "And you think what made you feel sick in the labs and what caused your hunger could be the same thing?"

"Yes. No. Maybe? I don't know?" said Bernie as he finished his breakfast, and look at the clock "The buss will be here soon. We better get going, Penny." He said as he got up and picked his schoolbag.

Penny looked at her parents, and got up, as Rose said "The lunch is in the balcony."

"Okay, got it! Bye mom, by dad!" Bernie said as he picked both bags and he and Penny went outside the door. Leaving both older cats behind, still sitting in the dinner table as they shared a look.

"You think Bernie is okay to go to school today?" asked Rose, worried, after a long silence, and her husband answered "He seems okay. Is his behavior of yesterday that worries me."

"You think is a virus?" asked Rose, and he said "I don't know. What worries me is that Bernie didn't seemed totally sincere when I talked to him now. Nor did he seemed yesterday."

"You think Bernie is lying?" asked his wife, and Jeff said "I don't know. Is like he is hiding something, and Penny too. I'm worried." He looked at his wife "I just hope that I'm wrong, and that everything is really okay."

* * *

 

Bernie and Penny walked in direction of the bus stop, and Penny had to walk fast to catch up with Bernie, who was walking a bit faster than usual, and seemed not to notice this. He arrived there first, and Penny soon after, Bernie even commented she was walking a bit slowly that day.

Penny looked at him, and said "Bernie?" the dog turend to her, as she said "Are you sure you are okay?"

"Yeah!" said Bernie "I said in house, I feel great! I feel strong as an bull! And I feel very wealthy!" he said, puffing his chest, and sighed, and smiled "I don't remember feeling this good."

Penny looked at him for a few moments, before saying "And, is this normal?"

"Huh?" Bernie looked at her, and she said "Bernie, you have gained more muscle during the night! You were feeling hungry yesterday and ate something you simply hate and said it was good! And now you are acting weird, saying you feel good! Is this normal? Is any of that normal?"

Bernie thought about what she said, and answered "I not sure. Maybe? I just know I feel good."

"This has anything to do with the radiation? Of course it does, doesn't it?" Penny asked, and Bernie flinched at her tone. But before he could answer, the bus came, and stopped in front of them.

They soon went inside, and in there, they found Rick, who was happy to see Bernie, to saty the least.

He pratycally jumped over Bernie, hugging him "BERN! I was so worried!" he sadi, making the others in the bus look at them, and Penny had to separate them and make both sit to avoid more attention.

Rick was happy to see that the radiation had not caused Bernie to melt, and he was surprised when they told him of what had went in home after they arrived.

"Wow! It sounds just like the comics!" Rick said, and Penny shushed him to make him go a bit more discrete, and he whispered "Is just like the comics! The hero is exposed to radiation and soon he starts developing his powers!"

"But this is not a comic!" whipered Penny "There is nothing like superheroes and these things! This is real life!"

"But is just like in comics!" said Rick "And this is just so cooool!"

"No, is not!" whispered Penny, almost angrily, and Bernie said "Sorry Penny, but I feel fine, so I guess it is okay to thing it all was cool."

Penny glared angrily at him, making him go silence. But Rick continued to talk, begin most ignored by Penny, who looked grumpy all the way to school.

Once arriving, Penny was still grumpy, and even avoided talking to Bernie and Rick, and they went all separate ways, and didn't saw each other until it was lunch time. Bernie meet Rick and Penny into the table, and sat on it. Penny was still grumpy at him, and kept her eyes on her lunch.

Bernie could only sigh, and start eating his ram, as Rick suddenly got closer to him, and said "Okay, by all the things that you told me, I guess your body now is passing by some kind of mutation." He said, showing a page of his comic "So, I guess that your body first went in sleep stage to spare you from the changes, and when you woke up, you were out of nutrients because of the changes in your body. Now, if your tiredness and hungry are gone, this may show that the first stage of your mutation is complete. Now, I'm not sure if there will be physical changes or-"

"Rick." Penny said, getting up "For the last time... This. Is. Not. One. Of. Your. Stupid. Comic books." She almost snarled, making both Bernie and Rick look at her with wide eyes as she picked her plates and started walking of "I rather eat away from you jerks." She said as she left.

They both looked at her as she walked off, and Rick said "Was it anything I said?"

Bernie was about to answer, when he heard "Look, the dog's sister is walking away."

Bernie looked, the feeling he had was that someone talked right by his side "What?" he asked, as he looked around, and Rick was confused as Bernie was suddenly acting as someone had whispered in his ear. Could the radiation have affected hi brain and now h was hearing other people's thoughts?

"Yeah, this is good, cats and dogs should not get so along." Bernie was still hearing, the feeling was that someone was talking right to his side, and he looked to the sides, before he seemed to catch the source of the voices.

They were coming form a far table, at 15 feet away. There were other dogs in it, and they seemed to be whispering and looking at Penny. But Bernie could hear them as if they were right by his side.

"Yeah, I guess that the cat in there things she can hang on with dogs. Do you believe it?"

"A cat and a dog being of the same family? It isn't natural!"

Bernie felt his blood boiling as he was hearing those jerks. With what right they thought they could talk about him or about his family like that!? Bernie felt like getting up and walking to there, when he heard one saying.

"Lets give something to the kitty, what do you think?"

"Good one."

Looking over, Bernie saw one of them, a doberman, had a tomato in his hand, and he barely had time to register when he threw it. Bernie saw it was going straight at Penny's direction!

He was going to say something, but them, the weirdest thing happened. It was like the world had slowed down by someone hitting the slow button. Benrie saw the tomato moving in Penny's direction in slow motion.

Bernie was stunned when he saw that, and looking over, he saw the whole cantina was in the same way. The dogs in the table far were looking at the tomato and pointing as if they were in slow motion. Penny was moving out very slowly, and even Rick, who was right by his side, seemed to be too slow to notice what was going on.

For a moment Bernie wondered what was going on, but he was brought back by the thought that the tomato was going to hit Penny. He was not going to let those jerks having the pleasure of seeing Penny being hit.

Bernie looked over his table, and picked up a small fork. Without really thinking, Bernie made an aim, and threw the fork. For his surprise, the fork moved into normal speed, and hit the tomato in mid-air, making it flew, and they both hit a column. For his surprise, the metal fork got stuck on it, making a loud sound.

It was as if someone had hit play. The world returned to normal speed, as everyone suddenly turned to the fork with a tomato stuck into the column. The fork seemed to have penetrated the column, which was made of concrete!

Bernie was stunned as everyone, as the students gathered around the fork, to see what was that. The dog turned to Rick and said "Did you saw that?"

"Yeah! The fork flew to the column!" said Rick, and Bernie instantly knew that Rick had not saw he do what he did, and maybe it was because he was too slow. Bernie realized it had happened just to him.

Some students went to the fork, and tried to remove it, but it was stuck. Some of the sports teams even tried to remove the fork form the wall, but they just couldn't, the thing seemed to be stuck, and none of them seemed to have strength enough to pull it out.

Bernei was focused on them, when he caught again the voices of the dogs "What the fuck was that!?"

"I don't know man! That fork came out of nothing!"

Bernie was still able to hear them, actually, Bernie noticed he could her the whole hall. He could hear the servants talking in the part of the food, talking aobut what the kids were looking with such interest. And he had a feeling like he could hear even what was happening outside of the windows...

Suddenly, a loud ringing sound, louder than anything Bernie ever heard in his life, resonated in the whole place. Bernie felt like his head would explode at the sudden sound resonating in his ears. He held them and screamed loud as his ears seemed to the point of bleeding.

After that, the sound seemed normal, and Bernie realized it was just the signal. Panting, he raised his head, to discover that Rick and other students were staring at him. For them, he was just a dog that suddenly started screaming in the signal touched. Bernie looked at them for a while and smiled nervously.

Luckily, for him, the situation went away quickly, and he and Rick had to go for their next class P.E.

In their way, they meet Penny once again, this was one of the classes they three had together. But Penny was still distant, and was avoiding looking at Bernie, she was still grumpy over earlier.

Once they all changed, they all stood in gymnastic clothing as they stood in front of their teachers, a big and black colored bull with a gold ring piercing in his nose, ivory colored horns and he was BIG, tall and toned.

"Okay! Today is..." he said, as he pulled out a red ball "Dodgeball!"

Some students groaned, Rick being one of them. Rick always was against those violent sports, but only when  _he_  had to participate. Being chubby, he was not very good at sports, and he was not very good in many of them, and usually ended up hurt into those things, specially dodgeball. For them Rick was a big furred target.

Soon the times were formed, and Bernie, Rick and Penny stayed in the same group, thought Penny seemed a bit unhappy for having to be in the same team, and remained distant from them.

Soon the whistle signed the start of the game, and red colored balls started flying around. Animals around where hit and Rick was almost hit every time. He had to hide behind Bernie in search for cover.

Penny was one of the ones that were able to balance the game, she was good at sports, and had a way of hitting the guys on the other team hard and right. She dodged skillfully and threw back with strength and good aim; she was making a good work until now.

In her running away to dodge most balls, she ended up right near to Bernie and Rick. She looked at them, and they looked back at her for a few moments, and Rick said "You need me teach me to do that."

Rick was talking about the way she was good in sports, but Penny did not answered, she looked to the ground, and Bernie was unsure of what to say. He was about to say something when he got a sound.

"Hey, check it out!"

Bernie's ear twitched as he recognized the voice of one of the dogs from the dining hall. "I'll hit the cat square in the head!"

Bernie turned around and saw a red ball coming in Penny's direction. Again, the world seemed to slow down as Bernie saw the red ball reduce speed. In this moment, Bernie instinctively stretched his arm and grabbed the ball in mid-air.

Penny flinched and gasped as she saw the ball in Bernie's hand, the ball that previously was flying square in her direction. Rick too was jaw dropped at this, and the dogs of the other team were surprised as well.

Bernei looked at the ball, when he heard a sound like something flying in his direction, and turned his head to see another ball flying in his direction. Bernie was able to catch this one too. So, as result, two o them team were send out. And as second effect, Bernei instantly became a target.

Soon, it seemed that everyone form the other team was aiming in him, so the rest of the players stayed away from Bernie, not to end up as targets too. But Bernie had little problem, even with everyone aiming at him.

To Bernie it was like the world was slower while he could move at normal speed. It was easy to him dodge the projectiles that to him were moving slow. He made little effort to this.

The other students looked in awe at Bernie at he seemed to dodge the balls as if it was easy. Rick was the most awe from all, looking at Bernie as he acted like one of the heroes of his comic books, dodging the attacks of enemies from their death beams. And Penny, she just looked at Bernie as he showed great skill. Yeah, she knew that Bernie was good at sports, but now, Bernie was showing a whole new level of skill.

The animals of the other side seemed also to be losing their patient, as they became more insistent into trying to hit Bernie, but the dog was still dodging easily. After a while, Bernie finally decided that dodging forever was not going to take him anywhere.

Finally, Bernie grabbed a red colored ball in mid-air, and looked at the opposite field, choosing a target. He saw one Doberman, the same guy that threw the tomato on Penny.

Bernie narrowed his eyes at him, and threw the ball in his direction.

Bernie should have put more strength than he wanted into the thrown, because the ball flew at high speed and hit the Doberman with a resonant "Plaf!". The Doberman was threw back with the ball, and landed 10 feet way form where he was hit.

The whole room seemed to freeze as the Doberman was in the ground, squirming, holding his chest as he seemed to be trying to breathe again. The teacher ran to him, and Bernie felt his heart stop.

But it backed up again when he heard that the guy was going to be okay, but was going to have to be taken to the medical area. The place was left, and Bernie could reflect about what he had just done.

When did he got that strong!? And how he was able to see that world in slow-motion? Just what was going on? It was almost like the aventures of Mighty Wolf. But that was just a comic book! This was real life! It just couldn't be that the radiation had really gave him super powers. It was impossible.

Right?

Before he could question himself a bit more, Rick suddenly came to him out of nowhere and said "That was so AWESOME!" he was squealing, but luckily no one seemed to notice " _Now_  you looked like a real superhero! That radiation really did something great with you! If I knew I would have entered in there!"

Bernie looked at him, and then, he noticed that Penny was very near, and she seemed to have heard what Rick said but, instead of going in their direction, she turned around and started to walk off, as if to leave.

"Penny!" Bernie called her as he left Rick behind and went after her. Penny seemed to ignore him and keep walking away, but Bernie kept going after "Penny, wait! Penny!" Bernie followed her halfway to the dressing rooms, when Penny finally turned to him and said "These are the  _girls_  dressing rooms, you can't get in there!"

"I don't want!" said Bernie, surprised at her aggressiveness "I just want to talk to you."

Penny looked at him, and looked away saying "What is it?" she sounded grumpy, and Bernie was not liking to see her that angry, at least, not with him.

"Penny, why are you mad?"

The cat looked at him, and said "Because you and Rick are both careless, irresponsible, immature dorks!" she said in his face "You simply don't think and don't care to what happens!"

"Penny, why are you like that?"

"You know very well why." Said Penny accusingly, and Bernie instantly knew it was about the events of yesterday, about the radiation and what happened.

"But Penny..." Bernie said to her "I'm fine, do you see?"

"But you could not be!" said Penny, "This is not a stupid comic book! When you are hit by radiation you get sick or even die! You don't receive super powers or become some kind of hero!"

"But I'm fine!" insisted Bernie, and what I just did-"

"Never mind it!" Penny said "Focus on here!" sh looked at him, this is serious, do you know this? Or you think this is some kind of video game? Is this all a joke to you?"

"But Penny, I'm fine!" Bernie repeated "I feel great, and what I just did, you have to admit it was cool-"

"It wasn't cool when I saw you laying in the ground!" Penny said bluntly, makin g Bernie lose his speech, he saw tears forming in her eyes, and Penny usually was not a girl of crying "Bernie, when the radiation hit you, I could see your bones through your skin." He voice was shaken "And then you were on the ground, you seemed dead."

She looked away, and took deep breaths as to hold back a sob "I thought you was going to die." Her voice was barely louder than a whisper "You were dying in front of me and I could do nothing."

"But I wasn't-" Bernie tried to say, but Penny cut him again "I thought you were dying! I thought I was going to watch you die, and that I could do nothing!" her eyes were filled with grief "And I could have prevented it!"

Bernie remained silence, as he saw Penny's tears running down her face, and she continued "I didn't wanted to lose you, and I could have. I thought I was going to lose you and I could do nothing about it. I was worried out of my mind in that moment, and I'm still am. And you and rick treat this as if it was all a big joke!"

Bernie remained silence as she stared at him, now her face seemd angry as she wiped the tears out of her eyes "You have to stop acting as it was a fantasy world and face the real! Don't talk to me until you are ready to take things seriously!"

And with that said, she turned around, and started walking away, leaving Bernie behind, now feeling guilty. He didn't had realized how Penny had been worried about him until that moment, and now he knew it, and felt horrible.

Soon the signal touched again, and the students started moving to their classes, Rick was right at Bernie's side, talking very much about the things of superheros and how would be great to Bernie be one of them, when someone talked to them.

"Hey!"

They both turned around, and saw a familiar ape walking in their direction. Rick yelped and hid behind Bernie, and the ape went in their direction, and stood right in front of them.

"Look, I don't want trouble." Said Bernie, and the ape only said "Yeah, me neither." This surprised both Bernie and Rick, and the ape surprised them even more by saying "I want to thank you."

Bernie looked at him, and said "Really?"

"Yeah." Said the ape, looking quite embarrassed "Thank you for, you know... jumping in front of that thing and... saving my life..." the ape looked at Bernie "It was stupid and crazy. But you saved me and... I wanna say thank you."

Bernie shared a look with Rick, and said "Huh, yeah, sure, you're welcome." And the Ape said "How jumps in front of a thing that emits radiation? It was crazy!"

Bernie scratched the back of his head "Yeah, now that you said that. I guess I wasn't thinking."

"But, are you okay?" said the ape, sounding genuinely worried at him, and Bernie said "Huh, yeah, pretty much."

"Wow... I thought you were going to be at the hospital." Said the ape, and then he said "Well, I must go to my class, bye, and... thank you again." He said, and he left to his next class, and soon, Bernie was able to drag Rick, who was still recovering from what just happened, to the next class.

The rest of the day passed normally, Bernie had more classes, and in the brief glimpses he could get form Penny, she was still ignoring him. Bernie just realized how worried she was at him, and he felt even more guilty for not realizing how much he was making her worried.

Finally, the last bell ring, and sighed the end of the classes, the students were all rushing to get out of there as soon as possible. Bernie was walking to get the bus. He was going to talk to Penny when they get it, and was going to apologize the best he could for not taking in thought her feelings. And he was going to hope that she could forgive him.

IN his way, Bernie was once again aborded by Rick, who kept babbling about the hero stuff "So, if you have new powers now, what I'm most completely sure, you will have to decide how to deal with them. I'm pretty sure that you will choose to use them for the good, for I know you for years, but there is the deal of having to keep them secret. It is almost a necessity when you are a hero, you know?"

He kept babbling, but Bernie was barely hearing, he was searching for Penny in the middle of the crowd, and soon he saw her. She was walking with her bag in her back, and her eyes locked with his.

Her gaze seemed to want to go away from him, and Bernie was about to call her, when he heard a commotion, and a sound of a vehicle drifting in the ground.

Looking over, everyone could see a van, it had lost control and was moving out of route, almost hitting a lot of people. Soon the van seemed to take it's own route, and was heading straight at Penny's direction!

Terror coated Bernie's features and so Rick's, as they both screamed.

"Penny!"

"Penny, look out!"

The cat onl them seemed to take knowledge of the van heading to her, drifting on it's side and almost in her.

Her face was taken in horror, and she was paralyzed. All she could do was crouch and cover her head with her hands as the van was almost hitting her!

Bernie looked on horror. Penny was going to be crushed against the stone surface and the van! She was going to die!

NO! That could not happen! He had to do something! Anything!

This time Bernie almost didn't noticed the world going in slow motion. As soon as it happened, he didn't even looked around. He just ran straight in the direction of Penny. He passed by everything on his way without even caring. He just needed to get to Penny, before it was too late.

Bernie came closer and closer to the van, and he saw it was almost touching Penny. Sneaking in the small opening on the side, Bernie saw Penny, crouched, her eyes closed, and her hands shielding her head.

Bernie saw the van moving in slow motion, he was not going to be able to take Penny out of there. Bernie did the only think he could thing about. He knelt in front of Penny, his back turned to the van behind, and placed both hands on the stone formation behind Penny, supporting himself the best he could.

It was useless. It would not stop the van. He would die there with Penny if he did it. But Bernie didn't had time to think or care. He just wanted to do something. He looked at her, and closed his eyes as he waited for the impact.

CRASH!!!!!

It was it.

It had ended.

They were both dead.

Well, at least Bernie tried to do something. He tried to save her, and it mattered in the end. Right?

Wait.

If he was dead, then how was he still breathing?

Penny soon took knowledge that she was still breathing, and that she didn't felt any pain. She slowly opened her eyes, and lowered her arms, and before her, there was a scene that she never imagined.

"Bernie?"

Having his name called made the dog open his eyes. Penny was looking at him, disbelief over all her face. Bernie looked back at her, and then, he moved, and heard the sound of metal cringing.

Looking back, Bernie saw that the van was destroyed, the metal had bent and ripped, forming a perfect shape of his back and shoulders. Bernie stared at it for a few moments, and back at Penny, who had the same look of disbelief that Bernie had on his face.

Bernie even noticed that the part where he had firmed his hands was cracked, as if he had heled it with enough strength to crack the concrete.

Bernie panted as he and Penny shared a look, and they just sat there, both unsure of what to do, say or even think about.

  


 


	6. Episode 001: Comes the Thunder - part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the incident, Bernie starts to discover just how deep the changes go...

Rose was making her own affairs, taking care of the house and getting the place clean. She was, besides a successful accountant, also a traditional house-wife. She knew how to clean and take care of the place with great skill, and found time also to take care of her own job. She was used to take care of the house and that was what she liked. It was a hard work, almost as having two jobs, but she was very much used to it, and it was the way she enjoyed doing things.

She was just cooking up something for dinner when the phone rang.

She was able to let the oven for a moment to pick on the phone, and putting it next to her face she said "Speckman house, who is talking?"

As the person in the phone talked, she answered "My husband is at work, here who talks is Rose Speckman."

...

"Yes, they are my children, why?"

...

When Rose heard the next words, her world seemed to stop for a moment. Horror coated her features and she almost dropped the phone "Oh my god..."

* * *

Speckman was just finishing the last adjustments into the equipment. The test of the Omega Radiation Emissor would be in two days. He was making sure that the equipment was working right and in perfect order.

In his checking in the computer, he noticed quite a strange thing. It seemed to be some record about a previous activation. But this could not be, the thing was not yet be used. It's activation was yet to be made. It could not have been activated. Could it?

The record seemed to be confuse, like whatever had happened had scrambled the sensors and confused the system. Maybe it had been that drop of power... he stopped for a moment.

In the models they ran, an activation of the beacon could suck so much energy that it could possibly make the power in the rest of the station fall for a few moments, just like it did yesterday. Could it be that yesterday...

His cell phone rang in his pocket, diverging his attention. He picked it up, and saw that it was a call from home, he put it on his ear and said "Rose?"

He heard his wife on the other line, she seemed to be talking in a hurry, and seemed almost to be crying.

"Woah, woah, Rose! Calm down! Breathe and tell me slowly what happened!" he said, and he started hearing what his wife was saying "The school?"

...

"Bernie and Penny?"

...

"CAR CRASH!?"

After hearing this, Speckman quickly got out of the room in a hurry, almost bumping in a lot of people on his way. But he was too busy to mind or even to notice. The only thought on his mind was to arrive in the school as quickly as he could.

* * *

 

Speckman had just picked up his wife at home, and now he was driving straight to the school. His wife was with bloodshot eyes and seemed still at the point of crying. He too was worried. Why he wouldn't be!? He they had received the news that both of their children had gotten involved into a car crash! There was any way of them not being in the state they were?

The news they received were vague, and they didn't had the exact condition, but it seemed that Bernie and Penny had got directly involved into the crash of a car, and the medics were already in there. More than that was just speculation, the person who talked in the phone also didn't seemed to know very much.

And, of course, this opened doors to all kind of grin possibilities, since they ddin't knew either if their children were okay or if they had gotten hurt, or even if they... Speckman shuttered  _NO_  he said in his own mind  _No, I can't assume the worse!_  He said to himself, he had to keep strong, and he had to arrive in there soon and see how they were, he had to talk someone and see in which condition they were. Why was the road so full of slow cars!?

After minutes that felt like an eternity, they finally arrived in front of them school. And they were not the first in there.

There were other cards already in there, there were some police cars, with police men around, talking to people and taking notes, and there were also the cars of other parents, that had come in there to check on their own children.

Jeff and Rose got out of the car, and started looking around, as if to search for any clues of their children.

"Bernie!" Called Rose "Penny!"

Jefferson stopped with a few people, asking about his daughter and adopt4ed son, but it seemed that no one knew about them.

After a while, they met together, and they had just arrived in a place with a horrid scene. A destroyed car, that seemed to have crashed against a corner of granite. The car seemed crushed and destroyed.

Rose was at the point of tears, and Jeff had to comfort her, and them, his eyes fixed into a nearby vehicle, an ambulance. And in there, being attended by a few paramedics...

"Penny! Bernie!" Jeff called, making Rose look at him, ad them in the direction he was looking at. And she saw them there, Penny and her foster brother, both being attended by medics, and none of them seemed to be hurt!

"Penny! Bernie!" she called out as she ran to her children. She passed by the medics, almost making them fall to the ground, and hugged Bernie and Penny tight. "Oh, I heard you two had an accident, and I thought- I got so worried!" she said as she hugged both of them tight, and Penny said "Mom... too tight."

Rose was still holding them when Jefferson come over "Kids, are you okay?"

Rose let go of them, and Bernie and Penny shared a look, and after a few moments of silence, Penny said "Yeah... we are fine."

"Juts what happened?" their father asked, looking at them. Penny looked into Bernie's eyes, as one doctor checked his heartbeats. The dog looked at her, and his look said everything. He was worried, and it was better not to say anything that would make the situation complicated. Penny turned to her father, and started saying. "I was walking and, the car lost control."

Both Speckman and his wife looked at her "I could barely react when it came over me. And Bernie..." she stopped, looking at Bernie again, who looked back at her. She turned back to her parents, who were waiting for the answer, and she said "He ran to me and pushed me out of the way. The car crashed near us, but we didn't got hurt."

"Oh, thank god!" said Rose as she hugged both cat and dog again, and Jefferson said "But what caused the car to lose control?"

"A lot of things." Said a paramedic who just finished attending Bernie "It could have been a problem with the car or with the driver. Well, these two seem to be perfectly fine, not hurt at all." He said, placing a hand in Bernie's shoulder and smiling "Is amazing that, is really rare to someone escape a crash like that unscratched. Is something you don't see every day."

Bernie and Penny shared another look, luckily, their parents nor the medics noticed that they both seemed worried, as if they knew something that they didn't.

And they did, Bernie and Penny could not let the others knew what really happened. How would them explain that Bernie had stopped the car with his own body, and that he damaged the car by doing so!?

There was not a possible way of explaining something like that. And if they tried, at least they were going to be considered with a concussion, ot tops were going to be considered crazy. And if someone even believed what they said, there was no telling how people were going to react to something like that.

Penny and Bernie both knew that they had to keep it low, at least until they themselves knew what had transpired exactly. For it was so strange and mysterious even for them.

"Guys!" a voice called, making people turn, and they saw someone being carried in a paramedic bed. It was a young jaguar, around the same age of Bernie and Penny, who had black fur all over his body and blue colored eyes. He was wearing white and green colored shirt and long jeans pants, and he seemed to be threated by the medics as they passed. Bernie and Penny recognized this feline almost immediately.

"Guimore!" Bernie said. Guilmore was a friend of theirs. They didn't knew very much each other, but they used to talk a lot in the lunch break and sometimes between the classes. Guilmore always seemed a good guy, sympathetic, good in sports, and a nice guy altogether.

"Guys! A-are you okay?" he asked desperate at them, and them Penny suddenly had a light "Is your car!" she said, and the others looked at her, and Bernie too recognized the vehicle. It was Guilmore's car! Man, in the moment of the situation he barely had time to take a good look at it and to light some bulb.

"I hit you two!" Guilmore said, looking completely mortified "I'm so sorry! I-I was driving to take the way back home when the car slipped! I-I could barely take control when I saw Penny in my way and I...I... I'm so sorry!" he cried out as he buried his face in his hands. Bernie and Penny shared a look as they saw just how much he was affected by this.

"We are fine" said Bernie "But and you? Didn't you got hurt when the car crashed?"

The answer came form a paramedic, who said "He had a light concussion, and is still a bit disoriented, but it seems to be nothing serious. It really seems to be one of these rare occasions where no one gets seriously hurt."

"I'm so sorry!" Guilmore said once more, still with his hands on his face, and Penny said "Okay, okay, don't need to cry, we are fine, the both of us."

This seemed to tranquilize Guilmore as little, as he raised his head, and looked to them, and then he said "B-but... Bernie..." he looked to the dog "Where did you came from?"

This made both the dog and the cat freeze for a moment as Guilmore continued "I-I'm sure I didn't saw you there... only Penny... And then I turned the car, and then.... There was that... that blur... and then-AHCK! My head!" he said as he held his head with his hands, and the paramedic said "We need to take you to the hospital to make a few more exams."

And with that said, they took Guilmore to the ambulance, but not before he could give Bernie and Penny a last "I'm sorry!" And with that, after a few more questions and worries of their parents, soon Bernie and Penny where in the car, being drove back home.

Rose was just saying how happy she was that none of them had got hurt, and Speckman was saying something about Guilmore having his driver card taken. But the two teens behind were barely hearing, they both too deep into thinking of what had transpired back in the school.

Penny was looking at Bernie, still trying to understand what she had seen. She knew it was impossible, but yet, it didn't changed the fact that she had actually seen it. That it had actually happened.

And Bernie, was staring at his own hands, gently flexing them. He too knew that what he did, all of what he did, was impossible. But he did. And this made a lot of questions to pop in his head like fireworks.

Just what was going on with him? There was something going on, and it was useless to try to deny it. But what was that that was going on? It was almost unavoidable that his thought wandered to Rick, and to what his friend said.

This made Bernie think. It could be possible that his hamster friend was right? It could be that he was becoming like the heroes of his comic books? It was even possible? It didn't seemed possible. But you could say the same about someone standing in front of a moving car and the car being more damaged than this someone.

Bernie barely noticed the car moving past, until they finally arrived home. As they entered home, their parents kept over them.

"Are you sure you two are okay?" asked their father, still worried, and their mother was still very close, as if they could get sick by any moment. It took a while more of argumentg to convince both of them that they were both okay.

Still, they asked them if they wanted anything or if they could do anything, and both teenagers said that no. Bernie soon went to his room, and in there, he went into deep thinking.

He knew that there was something very strange going on, and he thought about all possible reasons and implications. He thought carefully of what he could do now, and what was going to happen. Bernie came to the conclusion that pretending that everything was alright was useless, and he knew it quite well.

Bernie now thought that he may needed to knew exactly what was happening to him, and that it would be the best thing now before he decided to do anything else. Bernie needed to go out. He quickly changed clothes, and put on brown colored pants, a green colored polo shirt and a jeans jacket with hood, and put his cell phone in his pocket as well as some money, just enough for taxi if there was the need.

He then got out of his room, and went downstairs, as he called out "I'm going out!"

He had arrived home almost half an hour later, and Rose and Jeff, both in the living room, still worried, looked at him as he walked to the door, picking the keys in the drawer, and Rose said "But Bernie, you just arrived."

"Yeah, I need to go to a place. I'm fine, don't worry, I'll be back for lunch." He said, waving goodbye, and barely registering his foster-parents wave back as he closed the door. As the dog went away, Jeff and Rose shared a look, there was definitely something up with Bernie.

* * *

Bernie walked through the streets, aiming for a place in particular. Bernie already knew pretty well how to navigate in the big city of DestinyCity, and he knew already what busses he needed to get.

Bernie took the bus, and after ten minutes, he arrived in his destination, a bus stop that was just a few more blocks form walking form where he wanted. Bernie walked these blocks, and finally arrived in the place he wanted.

It was a dumpster. An old dumpster I a recluse part of the city, an old place filled with all kinds of trash that people did not wanted anymore and that waited in there till it could be processed.

Bernie passed by the gates, and by the plank that said "Beware! Angry Dog!" Bernie knew that there was no dog in there, the owner just kept it there to keep teenagers away, though it rarely worked.

Still, almost no one came to that place. Bernie passed by the great piles that made the big columns of the dumpster. It was made out by all kinds of old things, like old couches, ripped out sofas, broken televisions and washing machines, and the skeleton of old cars, many of them rusted by to the long time they had spent in there, almost forgotten by the rest of the world.

It was a good place to come if you wanted to be alone and away from someone's' sight. They said that even the police only went there in doubles, that there were bandits, gang members and drug dealers in that place. Some even said that it was the hideout of a dangerous serial killer, or even that it was haunted.

But Bernie was not afraid, he knew that most of it was exaggerated, and he had already came here regularly with his friends (his parents would kill him if they discovered), and he knew that it was not so dangerous. But still, it was not a place that he would like to be when it was night and he was all alone.

But Bernie was not afraid, there was not even close of the sun setting time. There was far less chance of him getting into a dangerous situation in there during the day. Bernie turned around the last columns, and walked a bit more, before sitting into an old dead car and looked around, it was a god place to think, it was calm and quiet, the sound of the streets being too little, and being muffled by the great amount of old things that were in there.

Bernie sighed as he knew what he was planning to do in there. He knew that he could not be saw, and knew that he could have serious troubles explaining if he was caught. He looked around one last time to all sides, before getting up of the car, turning to face it.

Bernie looked at the old rusted front of it, and sighed, he place both hands in the bottom of the car, his palms holding up into it. Bernie looked over his shoulder one last time, to be sure that he was completely alone. He breathed, and looked back to the car.

_ Just see if you can lift it. _  Bernie thought to himself  _Just see if you can raise the front of the car from the ground._  Bernie breathed one last time, and put strength in his hands and arms. And it was surely more strength than he wanted, for when he did, the car made three complete flips as it raised fifteen feet from the ground, and landed back with a loud thud.

Bernie could just stand in front of it speechless, and look at his own hands.

* * *

 

Penny was back home, Bernie had went out almost half an hour ago. And her parents, after seeing that she was really okay, went back to work, but told her to call them if there was any problem.

Penny was still thinking about Bernie, and about all that happened. It was totally impossible, and yet it had happened. It was driving her nuts as she thought about it, knowing that both she and Bernie were completely okay as they both should be at a dead house waiting to be identify by the legist.

Penny sighed as she walked through her room. It had been more decorated when she was younger, with pink walls and several plushies all over the place. But as she grew, her tastes changed slightly. The room now was of a light-blue color, with several posters of rock bands and actors in the walls. There was a great drawer and a chest. In one end laid one electric guitar, Penny had been learning for over four years now, and she was good, she wanted even to make a band.

Penny opened the window and stuck her head out, looking to the street and breathing the air of the afternoon. It helped ease her troubled mind a bit, but yet, it could not erase all the doubts and worries that she had right them.

_ RIIIIIING _

The sudden call of her cellphone called her back to reality. She looked at her bed with black sheets, and saw her phone vibrating in it as it sang it's call. Penny walked to it, and she saw an incoming call from Bernie.

Penny wasted no time to answer it, and say "Hi." And Bernie's voice on the other end greeted her.

"Hi, Penny." He seemed to be anxious about something "Look, I want you and Ricky to meet me."

"Bernie, there is something wrong?" Penny asked, and Bernie quickly answer "What? No, nothing! I just want you two to meet me now."

"Why?"

"You will see, call Ricky and you two meet me in the old dumpster. See yah." And Bernie hang out, not even leaving Penny time to answer. She stared at the phone for a few moments, wondering just what was going to happen then.

But Penny did what Bernie asked for, she called Ricky, who was very, VERY happy to hear that they were both okay, and delivered Bernie's messaged, what left the hamster as puzzled as her. And then, she dressed into long white colored pants and blue shirt and leather jacket and went off to the mysterious meeting.

* * *

The cat and hamster both arrived in the nod dumpster, and entered in it, searching for any clues of their canine friend.

"Bernie?"

"Bern?"

The called, but there was no answer, and they kept calling.

"Bernie, we are here!"

Bern! We have arrived! And I brought some snacks!"

Ricky shook the chips he had brought in the air, as if the sound of them would lead Bernie to come out. But there was no answer. They both stayed in there, with their backs turned to an old car as they looked around.

"I really hope Bernie had not make us come here for nothing." Said Penny, with her arms crossed over her chest, and Ricky said "Did he told you why we should come here?"

"No, he just said he needed to see us and that it was important."

"I'm losing the super hero marathon of canal 8. I doubt that there is anything more important than that." Said Ricky, with his arms on his waist. That was when they both heard a strange sound behind them, and both turned around.

And their jaws dropped.

In front of them was Bernie, and he was holding a whlle car over his head! With just one hand! And the dog, as it was no big deal, simply looked to them smiling, and said "Hey, wat's up?"

They just stared at him as they saw the own image of impossible in front of them. Penny was still looking completely shocked, while Ricky, well, the best word to describe him would be "stupefied". He stared at Bernie with a thousand yards stare, his mouth so agape that a baseball ball could fit inside without touching the sides, and his arms limp by his sides, the package of chips forgotten in the ground.

Bernie totally understood their reaction. He was expecting something like that. He knew that they would probably think he was crazy if he told, and then he had decided it would be better to already show them. That's why he had a car over his head.

After a few seconds, Penny finally found her voice again, and said "B-B-Bernie?" her voice sounded at pure disbelief. And Bernie could only smile at her, and thrown the car on his back as if it was a soda can. The car hit the ground with a loud "THUD", and it seemed to snap Ricky out, as he suddenly threw his arms to the heavens and said "IN NAME OF THE CAPE OF MIGHTY WOLF!"

This sudden scream seemed to be the signal that his brain had started off again, and then, Ricky was looking at all sides and making gestures at Bernie, as he seemed to have lost the ability to form complete sentences.

"Bernie! What did you- How did you- What is- How it was- When did you- Why did it- And the car- And you did- And then you did- And then you- And then there was- And the chips- And-"

"Do you plan to say a whole phrase?" asked Bernie with a sly smile at him. And Ricky could only stare at him with a slack expression, as well as Penny, who seemed to finally be able to ask.

"Bernie... How?"

Bernie said "Well, I guess that in the end that radiation really did something to me." And with that said, he walked to a nearby pile of cars, his friends still with their eyes on him. He stood in front of the pile, that consisted in three cars, and he grabbed it, and raised it all over his head with what seemed to be very little effort.

"I guess I really have bulk up!" Bernie said with some humor as his friends stared at him, with three cars being carry over his head. After a few more instants of silence. Ricky let out a high pitched squeal, as if a fan girl, what made Penny jump and Bernie stare at him.

The hamster then started circling Bernie, now taking into a non-stop mode. "Thisissoawesome! Justlikeinthecomics! Thisissogreatsososososogreeeeat!"

Bernie was actually able to chuckle at his friend. Bernie actually waited this kind of reaction from him. After all, being the guy Ricky was, it would be strange if he didn't reacted like that at all. It was his dreams of super heroes turning into reality right in front of him through Bernie. It was totally understandable for a guy like him to be so excited about something like that.

"Bernie! You have Turned into a super hero!" Ricky finally squealed as he stopped in front of the dog, who smiled back, and placed the cars back in the ground as if they weight as much as ten pounds.

"Yeah, guess you could say that." Bernie scratched the back of his head, as Ricky was still looking at him as he was the most awesome being in the world.

"This is so cool! You are as strong as Mighty Wolf!" Ricky squealed, and then he asked "Wait, you are invulnerable too?"

Bernie looked at him, and gave his shoulders "Well, considering I am completely unharmed after being hit dead square by a moving car, I guess I am."

Ricky looked at him, and then, he looked around. And as he did, Penny walked forward, and said "Bernie, what is all of this!?"

Bernie looked at her and said "Well, I guess Ricky was right. That Omega Radiation really did something to me. Is like it has changed me or-"

"GET READY!"

The sudden scream took Bernie by surprise as he heard a metallic thud. Penny cried out as she said "Ricky! What are you doing!?"

Bernie turned around, and saw Ricky with a piece of metal in his hands, it seemed to have bent. He looked at it with a happy expression as he said "Yes! You are indestructible Bernie!" It didn't took a lot of thinking to figure out that Ricky had tested his invulnerability by hitting him with the strongest thing he could find.

He had chosen a piece of metal as a weapon, and not only Bernie didn't felt it, as the piece of metal was more damaged than him.

"What is your problem!?" asked Penny to Rick "Did you just tried to kill Bernie!" But Rick ignored her "This is so coll! You are super strong and indestructible just like Might Wolf! This is aaaaaaawwwweeesoooomeeee."

"Are you even listening to me?" asked Penny, and Rick turned to her "Sorry, did you said something?" And once again, Penny was about to hit him in the face, but Bernie made her let it go.

"What else can you do?" asked an eager Ricky to his now-super-powered friend "Oh! Can you run fast? Might Wolf can move as fast as a bullet!"

Bernie looked at him. Yes, indeed Bernie already knew he could move fast, as he did twice in the school earlier that same day. In fact, Bernie had been spent some time in that dumpster, and he somewhat learned the trigger for that. Once again, he decided that it was better show than talk.

The two animals looked at Bernie as he opened a small smile, and then, with a  gust of wind, Bernie was no longer in front of them. The only thing they saw was a blur moving past them at a blinding speed.

They both blinked and looked around confused, and then, Bernie called "In here!"

They both turned, and saw Bernie, on top of a small cliff of trash, and waving at them. They barely had time to scream something back, when Bernie once again moved into a blur, and now, was standing right in front of them, a calm expression and a sly smile on his face.

"This answers your question?" he asked Ricky, who looked like an eight-years boy that just received his biggest dream.

"This is so great! What else can you do? Can you hear a whisper miles away? Can you see the flag they put on the moon?"

Bernie chuckled "Well, I already know I can hear better than normal." He said "But, as for hearing a whisper in the other side of the city... I'm not sure if I can do that." He admitted as he scratched the back of his head.

Ricky then asked "Do you have X-Ray vision? Can you see through solid objects?"

"Well, I don't know, maybe?"

"Try it out!" Ricky said, try to see through my clothes!" he said as he opened his arms and legs. Bernie and Penny just stared at him, both with a "you can't be serious" expression, and a little disgusted.

"I guess I'll pass this one." Bernie said, and Ricky than said "Wait! Waitwaitwaitwait! Can you fly?" he asked looking with very much expectation at Bernie.

This question took the dog by surprise. The thought of being able to fly was somethgin that had not gone through Bernie's head. He could? Well, he could run really fast, he was super strong and he could survive a car crash without a single scratch.

But fly?

Could he do it? It was even possible?

Bernie took a moment, before finally answering "Wel, maybe? I haven't really thought about it."

"Oh!" said Rick "So what about we find out if you can?" he suggested happily, and that's was when Penny chimed in again "Woah, woah, woah!" she said, putting herself between them  and looking at Rick right dead in the eyes. "First you make Bernie goes inside a room that is bombarded by radiation! Then you hit him in the head with a metal pipe! And now you want to push him off a building so you can see if he can fly!? Are you trying to kill him!?"

Rick flinched as Penny talked to him like that, and when she was over, he said "No, of coruse not! I'm not crazy." He said "We could push him off that bridge over the road. The fall is smaller and the chances of him getting hurt are less."

WHACK

"OUCH!" Rick cried out as Penny hit him in the head, and Bernie only looked at his two freidns, and he was still thinking about what Rick said. Not the part of jumping form a bridge, but about the part of flying.

It could really be that he could do that?

Well, Bernie was willing to give it a try.

"What if I do like they do in the comics?" he asked, granting his two friends to look at him "I try get off the ground and fly?"

"Bernie, for the last time, this is NOT a comic book." Penny said, sounding annoyed, and Benrie looked back at her, and answered "Yeah, and still I can do almost everything that they do in comics books, and you saw it."

Penny could not answer that. So, she just looked to the ground and remained silent, while Rick said "I liked your idea!"

Soon after, Penny and Rick were at a certain distance from Bernie, as he stood into an open field in the dumpster. Rick then called out "Okay, remember now: do as Might Wolf does. Flex your legs and propel yourself to the sky!"

Bernie nodded at him, and looked at his own legs, they were already tense form the expectation of flying. Bernie inhaled the air and sighed deeply before raising his snout and face to the skies above, skies that he aimed to be in soon enough.

Both of his friends looked at him. Rick was hopping from leg to leg, almost dancing in place from sheer expectation and Penny, she was there, with her arms crossed, and still unsure if it was really going to happen, but she was ready if it really happened. After all, in that day, the line between possible and impossible seemed to have been lost long ago.

Bernie was still looking to the sky above, and he slowly flexed his legs, as he did the hero Might Wolf do a lot of times in the comic books he read when younger. Bernie didn't knew how much strength he put in the legs to propel himself, but Bernie thought that he might need one good amount to take flight.

So, with a deep breath, Bernie finally propelled himself with his legs, and felt his body being propelled away from the ground. His eyes widened when he saw the sky coming closer, and looking down, he saw that he had left the ground, and was now moving upwards, his friends were looking at him as he raised in the sky, Rick cheering, and Penny looking impressed.

Bernie smiled. He was actually flying, he tried to stop and stand still in the air. But it did not happened.

Bernie then tried moving backwards in the fly. But it didn't happened.

Bernie soon noticed that he seemed not to have so much control of it. It was not like in the comic books, where Might Wolf could move around and stand still in the fly whenever he wanted. Bernie soon was realizing that it actually did not seemed like he was flying.

"I told you he could do that!" Rick cheered as he saw Bernie high in the air, and Penny by his side, looking up at the dog that moved across the sky. "He is flying just like Might Wolf! This is just like in the comics! He is... He is stopping, why he is stopping?"

In truth, Bernie seemed to be reducing speed as he was "flying", and now, he seemed to be trying to take control or something. But soon, he stopped going up, and started going down. And just like a rock.

Bernie flayed his legs and arms as he dropped to the ground bellow him, and Penny and Rick watched as he was falling, both immobilized. Finally, Bernie hit the ground, a little far form them, behind a great pile of trash, and a loud sound was heard as Bernie had fallen voer something.

"BERNIE!" Penny cried out as she ran in his direction, and Rick followed soon behind. They made the turn on the big pile, and they saw a car completely screwed, as if something had hit it from above. And they knew it had been Bernie, even because the dog was just coming out from it, and without a single scratch on his body.

Penny ran in his direction, and soon was asking "Bernie, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

Rick came soon after, and said "Yeah, that was not the best first flight ever. Next time try to keep a pose, this helps keeping the balance while you fly."

"I think I can't fly, Rick." Said Bernie as he looked at his friend, who said "How can you say that, you got more than ten stores off the ground!"

"I don't think I flied." Bernie said "I think I just jumped. It didn't felt like flying to me."

"Oh." Said Rick, realizing what he had said, and that Bernie could probably not fly "Well, it was still awesome."

"Shouldn't we stop doing these dangerous things?" Penny said "Before someone ends up killed?" she looked to both of them, and they both looked to her and both looked just slightly embarrassed.

"I'm okay." Said Bernie, assuring his sister, who seemed to relax. After this event, they talked a bit more, and Bernie said "Think we should tell mom and dad?"

"No!" Rick said "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

Both looked at him, a bit surprised by the way he acted so suddenly, and Bernie asked "Rick, why no, twelve times?"

"Don't you read comic books?" the hamster asked to his friend as it was something he should do, like eating or breathing "In them a super being is almost always persecuted or taken to a lab to serve on experiments and dissected. I don't want to see you end up into a operation table with your guts all in the outside."

Bernie made a face at this image, and he said "I doubt dad would let it." He was trying to assure his friend, and Rick quickly said "The guys who he work for will probably have him, to lead your dissection! They are going to make him record what your cells do and how your internal organs work!"

"You are being paranoid." Said Bernie but, much to his surprise, Penny said "Bernie, I can't believe in actually saying that, but I think that Rick is right."

Both males stared at her as she had grow two more tails.

"He is?"

"I am?"

Penny sighed "Bernie, we can't let other people know about this." She looked to her adoptive brother in the eye "Bernie, this is very strange, and I'm sure you know this. You may not have noticed, but till now I'm making be best not to freak out here."

She took a deep breath, and continued "Other people may not take this well, they may be scared, I know I am. We can't let anyone discover about this, not even mom and dad. We may keep this as a secret until we can fix things up."

Bernie nodded, in fact, Penny was right, she normally was the most sensate of them. She normally was right and made the best to keep them out of trouble. Penny could not show, most of the time, but she cared very much about the ones close to her, and she always did the best for them, Bernie learned this by growing up by her side.

"Yeah, you are right." Bernie said finally, and Rick said too "Of course! We must stay low and out of the radar of these government guys. After all, every superhero needs his secret identity!" he finished rather dramatically.

"Huh?" both animals looked at him, and he looked back at them "Of course! That's what you do when you got super powers! You become a super hero!" he said to them, as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

Both animals stared at him, Bernie with slightly surprise, and Penny with her famous "you can't be serious" look. "Have you been breathing some gas from here?" she as ked "I think the smell is making bad for your tiny brain."

"Owh, come on!" Rick said "Bernie would make a great hero! He has the powers, the hero code; he can do all of that!" Rick said, punching the air "He will be a super hero and fight of the bad guys!"

"Rick, juts shut up. Lets go home." Penny said, gesturing for the guys to follow her. Bernie looked at Rick, and then started following her, and Rick was soon behind "Ow, come on!" he said as he followed them.

The sun was almost setting, and was casting an orange glow over the city as they walked. They had to walk to the bus stop so they can catch the bus and go to their respective homes. And Rick had not dropped his idea of Bernie becoming a super hero, he seemed to have taken it really serious.

"Come on!" he said to them "BGernie would make a great hero! We could call him 'Might Dog'!"

"No." said Penny bluntly, and Rick looked at her as he and Bernie followed, and said "Wonder Hound?"

"No."

"Mega Canine?"

"No."

"Super Pup?"

"No!"

"What name should he have then? Because if he is going to be a super hero he needs a good name." Rick said, and Penny almost snapped at him, and said "Rick, just because Bernie can do those things it doesn't mean he is going to put out some costume and run around there putting himself in danger. He is not going to be a super hero! This is not one of your stupid comic books!"

"Awwww. Come oooooon. What is the fun of having powers if you can't use them for a greater good?" Rick asked, his arms crossed over his chest, and looking like a child who could not have candy.

Penny groaned and massaged her forehead at it, and Bernie, well, he was thinking about it. Yeah, it did sounded a bit crazy, if you thought about it. But, as you thought a bit more, it seemed a rather interesting idea. Bernie could possibly do all the kinds of things that a comic book super hero could, and Bernie did liked helping people. If he was offered this chance when he was younger, he would have accepted it, put on a cape and a mask and run around fighting crime. Even now, he being almost an adult, the idea seemed somewhat appealing.

As they walked, they all had their attention called by some commotion into a nearby store, it seemed to have people screaming in there. What was that, there was a fight? There was a lot of people in front of the store.

Suddenly, there was a loud sound of a gun. Everybody ducked to the ground, even Bernie and his friends, as they passed near and could now see that it was something happening.

"Back off!" said a random guy inside the store "If someone comes near we will kill everyone!" he screamed, giving a few more shots for the sky as he talked it.

They had passed by the store in the same way it was being robbed! Man, as if they luck could not get any better.

"They are bandits!" said Rick, and Penny said "Really, I didn't noticed."

"They are armed!"

"There are many of them!"

"Someone call the police!"

"They will be here soon!"

The crowd moved around the entrance of the store, and the three friends, out of everyone's sight, once they saw it was safe, stood up. They all looked to the store, it was a jewelry, and there was some guys robbing it, and it surely there was hostages.

"A robbery with hostages..." said Rick, near to his friends "...This is... perfect!" he almost cheered, granting his friends to stare at him "This is just the first mission of DestinyCity's new super hero!"

"Rick!" Penny cried out "Cut! This !Out!" she screamed at his face "You really think Bernie is going to go inside a store that is being stolen by crazy thugs with guns!?"

"Yeah!" Was Rick's simple answer, and Penny put herself to discuss with him. Bernie focused on them, until he heard a sound, he looked over, and he could her it. It were voices, coming from inside the store."

"You make her quiet!" said an angry male voice, maybe from one of the criminals in the store, and there was the soft sound of a child crying. Then there was a female's voice "Please, she is scared."

"Make her quiet!"

"She is just a child! Please, just let her out! I can stay here, but let her out!"

"You don't give me orders!" said the male voice, and also a clicking sound, as if a gun being triggered "I give orders, and you two stay quiet!"

Bernie clenched his fists as he heard that. That guy. He was so brave now only because he had a gun! Bernie hated these guys, he hated the ones that did evil to others like that only because they could. These guys that thought they could mistreat the others just because they had power or were important. This made Bernie so angry. And this guy, to add insult to the injury, was also threatening a mother and her child! This made Bernie's blood boil. If only Bernie could do something he would-" Bernie stopped for a moment.

"No, Rick! Forget it!" said Penny, and Rick said "But, Penny, people need a hero!"

"They need the police, and they are already on their way!" she said, turning away from Rick and tugging at Bernie's arm as he stared at the store. "Come on Bernie, let's go home, we can do nothing in here."

Bernie stared at the store for a few more moments, and Bernie turned to her, his face as hard as stone in a fierce look, and he said "There is one thing." He said "There is one thing I can do."

  


 


End file.
